In the article, we will consider how long people with cerebral palsy live.
The disease stands for cerebral palsy. This is a concept that unites a group of movement disorders resulting from damage to certain brain structures in the perinatal period. Cerebral palsy may include mono-, para-, hemi-, tetraparesis and paralysis, pathological disorders of muscle tone, speech disorders, hyperkinesis, unsteadiness of gait, impaired coordination of movements, mental and motor development lag in the child, frequent falls.
What are the disorders associated with this disease?
With cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment, epilepsy, mental disorders, visual and hearing impairments can be noted. This pathology is diagnosed mainly by anamnestic and clinical data. Algorithmdiagnostic examination of a child with cerebral palsy is aimed at determining comorbidities and excluding other congenital or postpartum pathologies. People with cerebral palsy should undergo lifelong rehabilitation therapy and, as necessary, receive medical, surgical and physiotherapy treatment.
How long people with cerebral palsy live, read below.
Causes of cerebral palsy
According to scientific data, this pathology occurs as a result of the influence on the child's central nervous system of various damaging factors that cause abnormal development or death of certain parts of the brain. Moreover, the impact of such factors is observed in the perinatal period - before, during and in the first 4 weeks of a child's life. The main pathogenetic link in the development of cerebral palsy is hypoxia, which is caused by various causative factors. First of all, those areas of the brain that are responsible for providing reflex motor mechanisms and maintaining balance suffer. As a result, there are paresis and paralysis typical for this disease, muscle tone disorders, pathological acts of movement.
How many years people with cerebral palsy live is interesting to many patients.
Etiological factors
Etiological factors affecting during fetal development are various pathologies of pregnancy:
- fetoplacental insufficiency;
- toxicosis;
- premature placental abruption;
- nephropathy of pregnancy,
- Rhesus-conflict;
- infections (rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes, toxoplasmosis, syphilis);
- threatened miscarriage;
- mother's somatic pathologies (hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, heart defects, arterial hypertension) and injuries suffered by her during pregnancy.
Risk factors affecting the occurrence of cerebral palsy during childbirth include:
- breech presentation;
- premature, prolonged or rapid labor;
- large fruit;
- narrow pelvis;
- discoordinated labor activity;
- long waterless period before delivery.
Main causes of cerebral palsy after childbirth
The main causes of cerebral palsy in the postpartum stage are hemolytic disease and asphyxia of the newborn, which may be associated with aspiration of amniotic fluid, malformations of the lungs, pathologies of pregnancy. The most common postpartum cause of the disease is toxic brain damage in hemolytic disease, which develops as a result of an immunological conflict or incompatibility of the blood of the fetus and mother.
What affects the life expectancy of people with cerebral palsy?
Symptoms of cerebral palsy
This disease can have different manifestations with varying degrees of severity. The picture of cerebral palsy depends on the depth and localization of damage to brain structures. In some cases, the disease can be noticed in the first hours of a baby's life. Most often, however, symptoms become apparent after a few months, when children beginsignificantly lag behind in nervous and mental development.
The initial symptom of the disease may be a delayed formation of motor skills. At the same time, the child does not roll over for a long time, does not hold his head, is not interested in toys, he is not able to consciously move his limbs, hold toys. When you try to put him on his feet, he stands on his tiptoes.
How many years children with cerebral palsy live, parents want to find out for sure.
Pareses
Pareses can be observed in only one limb, having a one-sided character, or cover all limbs. There is a violation of articulation (dysarthria). If the pathology is accompanied by paresis of the muscles of the larynx and pharynx, then there are difficulties in swallowing (dysphagia). Often cerebral palsy is accompanied by a significant increase in muscle tone, skeletal deformities typical of this disease (deformities of the chest, scoliosis) are formed. Cerebral palsy occurs with the formation of joint contractures, which exacerbates movement disorders. This leads to the development of chronic pain syndrome in the neck, shoulders, back and legs.
With cerebral palsy, there may be strabismus, disruption of the digestive system, respiratory disorders, urinary incontinence. Approximately in 20-40% of cases, the disease occurs with epilepsy. About 60% of these children have vision and hearing problems. Complete deafness or hearing loss is possible. In half of the cases, the disease is combined with endocrine pathology and is accompanied by various stages of mental retardation, oligophrenia, perception disorders, impaired ability tolearning, behavioral deviations, etc. However, about 35% of children have normal intelligence.
Non-progressive disease
This is a chronic but not progressive disease. As children grow and the nervous system develops, previously hidden pathological manifestations may be revealed, creating a false sense of disease progression.
People with cerebral palsy undergo lifelong treatment. They conduct a variety of physiotherapy, massages, rehabilitation complexes. If necessary, if a person cannot move independently, he can use a wheelchair. If, due to the complexity of the disease, he cannot manage it, relatives provide assistance.
How old children with cerebral palsy live depends on many factors.
Complications of cerebral palsy
Among the main and most frequent complications of cerebral palsy, the following can be noted:
- Orthopedic surgical complications: developmental disorders of the hip joints, curvature of the knee joints, forearms and feet.
- Epileptic syndrome, which is manifested by seizures, is especially common in hemiparetic form of cerebral palsy. Convulsions aggravate the course of the disease, there are some difficulties with rehabilitation and pose a great danger to life. In patients with cerebral palsy, there are various forms of epilepsy, both benign with a positive prognosis, and extremely severe.
- Cognitive disorders, which include disorders of memory, intelligence, attention and speech. The main speech disorders in cerebral palsy are stuttering, pronunciation disorders (dysarthria), lack of speech in cases of preserved hearing and intelligence (alalia), inhibition of speech development. Speech and movement disorders are interrelated, therefore, each form of the pathological condition is characterized by specific changes in speech.
How long do people with cerebral palsy live?
In the overwhelming majority of cases, it is extremely difficult to determine how long people with this disease live, since this severe pathology can occur with damage to different body systems. In certain cases, with adequate treatment, a person with cerebral palsy lives a long and fulfilling life, with virtually no special he alth problems. In severe cases, a child with a similar developmental disorder may die within a few years. Cerebral palsy is a collective concept for a whole set of syndromes of movement disorders observed as a result of pathologies of intrauterine development that led to damage to brain structures.
If we talk about how long people with cerebral palsy live in a wheelchair, then we should pay attention to the problem of premature aging of patients. This is a rather acute question in such a disease. Science has proven that by about age 40, people are prone to a decrease in life expectancy. The physical body of people suffering from cerebral palsy wears out much faster, due to the deformation of internal organs, bones and joints. Besides,the body wears out due to the intake of numerous medications, including those to eliminate the pain syndrome, which are prescribed to patients with cerebral palsy throughout their lives. Outwardly, patients with cerebral palsy look much older than their biological age. If at the same time they were not given due attention, development and rehabilitation from birth, then many organs and systems of the body of such people, for example, respiratory and cardiovascular, may remain underdeveloped. So they work hard, which also affects how old people with cerebral palsy live.
Another important factor that directly affects life is the type, complexity and course of the disease itself, the presence of complications. With severe forms of the disease, the constant occurrence of epileptic seizures, the life expectancy of people with cerebral palsy cannot be average.
Often, with proper and timely therapy and all the necessary procedures to improve the general condition, patients with cerebral palsy live up to 30-40 years, and sometimes even to retirement age.
Forecast
The prognosis for this disease directly depends on its form, continuity and timeliness of the ongoing rehabilitation therapy. In some cases, the disease leads to profound disability. But often, through the efforts of doctors and parents of a sick child, it is possible to compensate for existing violations.
We looked at how long people with cerebral palsy live and the features of this disease.
