What is paralysis? This is a condition of a person in which he is completely deprived of motor abilities due to lack of strength in the muscles. This circumstance is due to damage to nerve fibers: the patient is not able to move independently and becomes dependent on other people.
Most often, nerve palsy is a consequence of serious negative processes in the body, but some of its forms can act as independent diseases: Erb's palsy, Bell's palsy, Parkinson's disease, polio, cerebral palsy.
Diagnostic Methods
Diagnosis of a disease caused by damage to nerve fibers consists of:
- examination by a neurologist;
- fluoroscopy;
- CT and MRI;
- myography;
- neurosonography;
- checking the reflex abilities of the lower extremities (Achilles, plantar, knee reflexes and the Jendrasik maneuver).
Consequences of immobility
What is paralysis? How to care for a patient who is in a state of immobility? Prolonged bed rest, caused by forced inactivity, negatively affects the he alth of a paralyzed person. When lying down for more than 4 days, the patient experiences a decrease in muscle tone, problems with blood pressure, and reduced joint mobility. Along the way, metabolic processes are rebuilt in the body, an increase in glucose levels is observed in the blood, and the nitrogen-calcium balance is disturbed.
Due to the paralysis and lying position caused by this state of the body, the rate of bone thinning is rapidly increasing, the risk of infection of the urinary system is increased, urinary incontinence is manifested, dizziness and fainting occur, especially when changing body position and sharp turns of the head. In the process of breathing, the volume of the lungs is partially used, blood circulation is disturbed, which subsequently threatens with thrombosis.
Caring for a paralyzed person
A patient who needs special care during this period should be aware that stiffness in the joints should not lead to complete immobility. Even with paralysis, you need to move, perform various exercises to the best of your ability.
Therefore, from the beginning of bed rest, gymnastics and the study of the joints should become a necessary component of high-quality treatment. If the patient is unable to do sohimself, he should help. Breathing exercises are aimed at involving in the process all parts of the lungs that are inactive during paralysis.
What is facial paralysis
Bell's palsy is fairly common and is caused by:
- infectious diseases (diphtheria, mumps);
- traumatic injuries;
- hypothermia;
- cancerous tumors;
- impaired blood flow in hypertension and atherosclerosis;
- consequences of otitis media;
- inflammatory processes in the brain.
Facial paralysis develops at a very rapid pace and can manifest itself at any age, but most of all it affects people over the age of 60. Reliably the causes of such a disease have not been studied; it is only known that the mechanism of its occurrence is due to swelling of the facial nerve, which occurs due to a viral infection or immune failure.
Symptoms of facial paralysis
Symptoms of a dangerous condition are:
- pain behind the ear, often occurring on the eve of the manifestation of muscle weakness in the face area;
- lack of facial expressions on the affected side and excessive muscle contraction in the opposite part of the face. So, when trying to smile, the patient's mouth twists to the he althy side;
- muscular weakness that can develop in a matter of hours;
- wide opening of the palpebral fissure. A sick person is unable to close a deformed eye;
- feeling of numbness in the facial area;
- violation of salivation and lacrimation.
Treatment of facial paralysis
What is facial paralysis and what measures are recommended to be taken to cure it? The tactics of treating facial paralysis is selected depending on the degree of nerve damage and most often consists of drug therapy.
At the initial stages of the disease, glucocorticoids are prescribed to the patient, thanks to which it is possible to reduce the severity and duration of residual paralysis. Antiviral drugs are prescribed: Valacyclovir, Acyclovir, Famciclovir.
Instillation of a diseased eye with a natural tear or isotonic solution is used, as well as a bandage. After a week of treatment, vitamin complexes and agents to improve nerve conduction are prescribed.
The following procedures are applied in parallel:
- therapeutic gymnastics;
- acupuncture;
- collar zone massage;
- laser therapy;
- ultrasound;
- UHF electric field.
In severe cases, surgical intervention is used, which must be carried out no later than 3 months from the date of detection of the disease. Otherwise, the pathology may remain forever. During the operation, a microscopic decompression is performed, during which the bone covering the facial nerve is removed. This is necessary to open the nerve sheath. Then the doctor prescribes certain exercises for the facial muscles, thanks to which it is possible to fully recover in most cases.
Danger of lack of motor ability of limbs
Paralysis of the limbs is the result of damage to the spinal cord. In the full form, the integrity of this organ is violated. The degree of its damage affects the muscle failure of a certain area of the body.
Injury to the spinal cord at the level of the 4th, 5th and 6th cervical vertebrae leads to tetraplegia - paralysis of all 4 limbs, but the patient can bend and raise his arms. With a lesion in the zone of the 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae, the legs are taken away, the hands and carpal joints are paralyzed; the patient can move only the shoulder and very little movement of the arms.
If the lesion occurs at the level and above the 4th cervical vertebra, breathing is paralyzed, which in most cases ends in death.
Paraplegia is a paralysis of both legs, resulting from a transverse lesion of the spinal cord in the area of the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae.
In all situations of spinal cord injury, a violation of the sensitivity of the affected areas is characteristic.
Symptoms of paralysis of limbs
Limb immobility is manifested by the following symptoms:
- partial decrease in muscle strength, turning into spastic (convulsive) paralysis;
- lack of pain sensitivity;
- fecal and urinary incontinence;
- insufficient blood flow to affected limbs.
Causes of limb paralysis
Causes of missing motor limbs are:
- congenital diseases;
- tumor formations pinchingspinal cord;
- inflammatory processes in the spinal cord.
Accidents also play a role.
How to restore paralyzed limbs?
Treatment of paralysis resulting from an accident is to ensure the functioning of the circulatory and respiratory systems, which are vital to the body. Artificial ventilation may be used. The patient is prescribed prolonged bed rest.
An important factor on the road to recovery is exercise and a variety of rehabilitation procedures. In the process of gymnastics, to ensure the blood supply to the paralyzed muscles, the affected limbs are set in motion in a passive way. A certain series of exercises is also carried out for he althy muscles. As soon as it becomes clear that the paralysis of the muscles has disappeared, you will need to perform special motor exercises.
Ergotherapy is also used - a set of rehabilitation measures aimed at restoring daily life and habitual activities of a person, taking into account the physical limitations present.
Psychological support for a paralyzed person who feels inadequate plays a key role in the process of treatment, which is quite long in time. The fight against the complexes that have appeared is carried out using psychotherapy and the technique of positive thinking.
Severe neurological disease: cerebral palsy
Infantile cerebral palsy is an incurable disease characterized bythe absence of its progress, that is, further development. The main causes of cerebral palsy today are:
- hypoxia of the child immediately after birth or in the process of being in the womb. In most cases, paralysis is caused by pathologies that occur during the period of gestation (various infections, toxicosis, impaired circulation of the placenta) and lead to incomplete development of the brain areas responsible for the balance of the body and its reflex mechanisms. As a result of these processes, muscle tone is incorrectly distributed in the skeleton, which causes the development of pathological motor ability;
- trauma during childbirth. May be due to the structure of the pelvis of the woman in labor, weak labor activity, rapidly passing or protracted labor, childbirth after a long anhydrous period, incorrect position of the fetus;
- hemolytic disease of newborns, during which the child's brain is poisoned. May be caused by liver failure in the fetus or incompatibility of its blood type or Rh factor with maternal ones;
- chronic or acute diseases of a woman during pregnancy (heart defects, rubella, obesity, anemia, diabetes, hypertension). Also dangerous factors for the child are the intake of medications by the expectant mother, in particular tranquilizers, and negative phenomena: stress, physical injuries, alcoholism, psychological discomfort, drug use;
- abnormal course of pregnancy due to toxicosis, threatsinterruption, immunological incompatibility between mother and child;
- complications during childbirth, provoking conditions for the occurrence of asphyxia and mechanical head trauma - secondary factors that cause brain damage.
The most severe form of cerebral palsy is spastic tetraplegia, often found in premature babies. In half of these children born prematurely, deformation of the body, epileptic seizures, limited mobility of the limbs, strabismus, atrophy of the optic nerves, hearing impairment, microcephaly (pathology of brain development) are simultaneously observed. A child diagnosed with cerebral palsy is not able to serve himself and engage in any simple labor activity throughout his life.
Infantile cerebral palsy in the hemiplegic form is characterized by dysfunction of the limbs on one side of the body. The arm suffers more than the leg.
Dyskinetic, or hyperkinetic, form is manifested by increased muscle tone, hearing loss, paralysis. Intelligence is preserved: the child can attend school and university.
The ataxic form of the disease is manifested by the development of oligophrenia, mental retardation.
Infantile paralysis: signs
Symptoms of cerebral palsy are:
- Delay in the manifestation of motor activity (turns, bending of the legs and arms).
- Complete immobility of the limbs.
- Convulsions and epileptic seizures.
- Lag in speech development.
- Weakholding the head.
Treatment of cerebral palsy
Paralysis, the symptoms of which are a good reason to visit a pediatric neurologist in order to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe the right therapy, cannot be completely cured, but the quality of life of a sick child can be significantly improved. In the first years of life, therapeutic measures are taken to reduce convulsions, muscle tone, and improve the motor ability of the joints. These actions reduce the risk of skeletal deformity, improve the baby's ability to maintain balance, make normal movements of the limbs and acquire basic self-care skills.
A child diagnosed with cerebral palsy should be registered with a neurologist, pediatrician, orthopedist, speech therapist, rehabilitation therapist and psychiatrist. It is the integrated approach of the necessary specialists that will determine its maximum adaptation to life.
Children's paralysis is treated by a combination of several methods. These are taking medicines, constant therapeutic exercises, surgical therapy, treatment in sanatoriums.
