What is paralysis? This is a condition of a person in which he is completely deprived of motor abilities due to a 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 surrounding people.
Most often, nerve palsy is the result of serious negative processes in the body, but some of its forms can act as independent diseases: Erb palsy, Bell 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;
- computed and magnetic resonance imaging;
- myography;
- neurosonography;
- testing the reflex abilities of the lower extremities (Achilles, plantar, knee reflexes and taking Endrashik).
The consequences of immobility
What is paralysis? How to care for a patient in a state of immobility? Prolonged bed rest caused by forced inaction negatively affects the health of a paralyzed person. When in a supine position for more than 4 days, the patient has a decrease in muscle tone, problems with blood pressure occur, and joint mobility decreases. Along the way, the body's metabolic processes are rebuilt, an increase in glucose levels is observed in the blood, and nitrogen-calcium balance is disturbed.
Due to paralysis and a lying position caused by this state of the body, the rate of liquefaction of bones is growing rapidly, the risk of infection of the urinary system increases, urinary incontinence appears, dizziness and fainting occur, especially when changing the position of the body and sharp turns of the head. In the process of breathing, the lung volume 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 cause complete immobility. Even with paralysis, you need to move, perform various exercises due to your own abilities.
Therefore, from the beginning of
bed rest, the necessary component of quality treatment should be gymnastics and the study of joints. If the patient is not able to do this himself, he should be helped. Breathing exercises are aimed at involving in the process all the departments of the lungs that are inactive with paralysis.
What is facial paralysis
Bell paralysis is quite widespread, the causes of which are:
- infectious diseases (diphtheria, mumps);
- traumatic injuries;
- hypothermia;
- cancerous tumors;
- impaired blood flow with hypertension and atherosclerosis;
- consequences of otitis media;
- inflammatory processes in the brain.
Facial paralysis develops at a very fast pace and is able to manifest itself at any age, but most of all affects people who have crossed the 60-year mark. Reliably the causes of such a disease have not been studied; it is only known that the mechanism of its occurrence is due to edema of the facial nerve, which occurs due to viral damage or immune failure.
Symptoms of facial paralysis
Symptoms of a dangerous condition are:
- pain behind the ear, often arising on the eve of the manifestation of muscle weakness in the area of the face;
- lack of facial expressions on the affected side and excessive muscle contraction in the opposite part of the face. So, when you try to smile in a patient, the mouth twists to the healthy side;
- muscular weakness that can develop in a matter of hours;
- wide opening of the palpebral fissure. A sick person is not able to close a deformed eye;
- feeling of numbness in the facial area;
- violation of salivation and lacrimation.
Facial Paralysis Treatment
What is facial paralysis and what measures are recommended to be taken to cure it? The tactics for treating facial paralysis are selected depending on the degree of nerve damage and most often consists in drug therapy.
At the initial stages of the disease, the patient is prescribed glucocorticoids, due to which it is possible to reduce the severity and duration of residual paralysis. Antiviral drugs are prescribed: Valaciclovir, Acyclovir, Famciclovir.
Instillation of the 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 are prescribed to improve nerve conduction.
In parallel, the following procedures are applied:
- physiotherapy;
- acupuncture;
- collar massage;
- laser therapy;
- ultrasound;
- UHF electric field.
In severe cases, surgical intervention is used, which must be performed no later than 3 months from the date of detection of the disease. Otherwise, the pathology can remain forever. During the operation, microscopic decompression is performed, during which the bone covering the facial nerve is removed. This is necessary to open the nerve membrane. Then the doctor prescribes certain exercises for the facial muscles, thanks to which it is possible to fully recover in most cases.
The danger of lack of motor ability of the limbs
Limb paralysis is the result of damage to the spinal cord. In full form, the integrity of this body is violated. The degree of its damage affects the muscle failure of a certain part of the body.
Damage 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 defeat in the zone of the 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae, legs are taken away, hands and carpal joints are paralyzed; the patient can only move his shoulder and move his hands very slightly.
If the lesion occurs at and above the 4th cervical vertebra, breathing is paralyzed, which in most cases ends in death.
Paraplegia is the paralysis of both legs that occurs due to a transverse lesion of the spinal cord in the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae.
In all situations of damage to the spinal cord, a violation of the sensitivity of the affected areas is characteristic.
Symptoms of limb paralysis
Immobilization of the extremities is manifested by the following symptoms:
- a partial decrease in muscle strength, passing into spastic (convulsive) paralysis;
- lack of pain sensitivity;
- fecal and urinary incontinence;
- insufficient blood flow in the affected limbs.
Causes of limb paralysis
The causes of the absence of motor limbs are:
- congenital diseases;
- tumor formations pinching the spinal cord;
- inflammatory processes in the spinal cord.
Accidents also play a role.
How to recover paralyzed limbs?
The treatment of limb paralysis resulting from an accident consists in ensuring the functioning of the circulatory and respiratory systems, which are vital for the body. Artificial ventilation may be used. The patient is prescribed a long bed rest.
An important factor on the path to recovery is exercise and a variety of rehabilitation procedures. In the process of gymnastics, the affected limbs are set in motion in a passive way to ensure blood supply to the paralyzed muscles. A certain series of exercises is also carried out for healthy muscles. As soon as it becomes clear that muscle paralysis has disappeared, special motor exercises will be required.
Ergotherapy is also used - a set of rehabilitation measures aimed at restoring everyday life and habitual activities of a person, taking into account the physical limitations present.
The key role in the treatment process, which is quite long in time, is played by the psychological support of a paralyzed person who feels inferior. The fight against the emerging complexes is carried out using psychotherapy and positive thinking techniques.
Severe neurological disease: cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is an incurable disease, a feature of which is the lack of its progress, that is, its further development. The main causes of cerebral palsy today are:
- hypoxia of the baby immediately after birth or in the process of being in the womb. In most cases, the cause of paralysis is the pathology that occurs during the period of gestation (various infections, toxicosis, impaired circulation of the placenta) and leads to incomplete development of the brain areas responsible for the balance of the body and its reflex mechanisms. Due to these processes, muscle tone is incorrectly distributed in the skeleton, which determines the development of pathological motor ability;
- trauma during childbirth. May be due to the structure of the pelvis of the woman in childbirth, weak labor activity, rapidly passing or prolonged childbirth, childbirth after a long waterless period, the wrong position of the fetus;
- hemolytic disease of the newborn, during which poisoning of the brain of the child occurs. May be caused by hepatic failure in the fetus or incompatibility of its group or Rh factor with the maternal;
- chronic or acute diseases of a woman during pregnancy (heart defects, rubella, obesity, anemia, diabetes mellitus, hypertension). Also dangerous for the child are the future mother's intake of drugs, in particular tranquilizers, and negative phenomena: stress, physical trauma, alcoholism, psychological discomfort, drug use;
- improper pregnancy due to toxicosis, threats of termination, immunological incompatibility of the mother and child;
- complications during childbirth, provoking conditions for the occurrence of asphyxiation and mechanical trauma to the head - secondary factors that cause brain damage.
The most severe form of cerebral palsy is considered spastic tetraplegia, which is often found in premature babies. Half of these babies born prematurely have torso deformities, epileptic seizures, limb limitation, strabismus, optic nerve atrophy, hearing impairment, microcephaly (brain development pathology). A child with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy is not able to serve himself and engage in any simple labor activity throughout his life.
Cerebral palsy in hemiplegic form is characterized by impaired limb function on one side of the body. The arm suffers to a greater extent 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, a delay in mental development.
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.
- Seizures and epileptic seizures.
- Lag in the development of speech.
- Weak head retention.
Cerebral Palsy
Paralysis, the symptoms of which are a good reason to go to a pediatric neurologist for the purpose of making an accurate diagnosis and prescribing 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 carried out to reduce seizures, muscle tone, and improve the mobility of joints. These actions reduce the risk of skeleton deformation, improve the baby’s ability to maintain balance, make normal movements with limbs and acquire the simplest self-care skills.
A child with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy should be registered with a neurologist, pediatric doctor, orthopedist, speech therapist, rehabilitologist and psychiatrist. It is the integrated approach of the necessary specialists that will determine its maximum adaptation to life.
Paralysis of children is treated by a combination of several methods. This is a medication, permanent therapeutic exercises, surgical therapy, treatment in sanatoriums.