Cerebral Palsy Causes example essay topic

Cerebral Palsy Cerebral palsy refers to a group of chronic disorders that involve degrees of brain damage that affect body control and movement. The term cerebral refers to the brain, while palsy describes a disorder that impairs the control of body movement. These disorders are not the result of muscles or nerves problems. Instead, they are due to impaired motor areas in the brain that disrupt its ability to control movement and posture.

The condition typically appears within the first few years of life and it is not marked by regression. (Mecham, 1986) Cerebral Palsy can either be present before birth, can occur during the delivery process, or can even develop up to several years after a child is born. The disorder is most commonly diagnosed when a child is between four months and 2 years old. Occasionally, it does not appear until later in a child's development.

The prenatal causes can include infections, anoxia, and metabolic disorders. The after delivery causes may include, anoxia, head trauma, asphyxia, premature birth, birth complications, or even really low birth weight. Acquired Cerebral Palsy causes may include, anoxia, infections, neoplasms of the brain such as tumors or cysts, and head traumas. (Cogher, Savage & Smith, 1992) "There are between 500,000 and 700,000 Americans affected by cerebral palsy, with roughly 3,000 new cases diagnosed. Children with cerebral palsy will be affected by the condition in varying levels, depending on the severity of the case". (Cogher, Savage & Smith 1992) There is still a lot of missing information regarding cerebral palsy and a way to cure children with cerebral palsy, but as more studies are performed hopefully the number of children with cerebral palsy can be reduced.

There are certain indicators that make the risk of diagnosing children with cerebral palsy greater. When parents believe the diagnoses of children with cerebral palsy was the result of medical mistakes, they are encouraged to contact an attorney. Many children with cerebral palsy may have the condition because of unknown reasons, but some children with cerebral palsy may be suffering because of errors made during delivery. (Cogher, Savage & Smith, 1992) It is believed that oxygen cut off to the baby's brain at crucial points can cause children to have cerebral palsy. The way the condition affects children with cerebral palsy is described as unique from patient to patient. "Milder symptoms within children with cerebral palsy may appear in minimal awkwardness of hand control movement.

More severe symptoms in children with cerebral palsy may result in basically no muscle control, greatly affecting their lives". (Cogher, Savage & Smith, 1992) There are some individuals that suffer a mild cerebral palsy form. Many people do not know that mild cerebral palsy exists because the symptoms of this cerebral palsy form are subtler and mild cerebral palsy patients are able to lead "normal" lives. Since cerebral palsy is caused from brain damage, the severity of the cerebral palsy is dependent upon how much brain damage exists.

With mild cerebral palsy, as the name indicates the damage suffered has been minimal. Sometimes, mild cerebral palsy patients cause other disorders to occur. The way that these disorders affect the mild cerebral palsy individual can be mild or severe, requiring the mild cerebral palsy patient to need more treatment. Since every mild cerebral palsy patient is affected in his / her own way, developing an individualized mild cerebral palsy treatment plan is required.

There are many different types of cerebral palsy. "Types of cerebral palsy are classified by the type of movement problems caused by brain impairment, or by the parts of the body that are affected". (Mecham, 1986) The four types of cerebral palsy that indicate motor disability include: spastic, ataxic, athetoid and mixed cerebral palsy. Spastic cerebral palsy causes movements to be stiff or difficult to execute.

In these types of cerebral palsy the muscles may not be able to relax properly. In ataxic cerebral palsy, balance and coordinated movements are difficult to achieve. Depth perception problems are also common in these types of cerebral palsy cases. Athetoid cerebral palsy is classified as the inability to control muscle movements or involuntary muscle movement. Mixed cerebral palsy involves a combination of these conditions. (Cogher, Savage & Smith, 1992) Quadriplegia is used to define the types of cerebral palsy that affect all four extremities and impair trunk and neck muscle movements.

This is often the most severe form of cerebral palsy and is therefore usually the most debilitating. Children with quadriplegia combined with severe mental disability often have a lower survival rate than people with other types of cerebral palsy. The types of cerebral palsy are classified in these ways to better facilitate communication about the ways that cerebral palsy can affect patients. Classifying the types of cerebral palsy makes diagnosis more definitive as well. The terms describing muscle impairment and the terms used to delineate the affected parts of the body are often coupled in diagnoses to describe how and where cerebral palsy disability resides in a patient. There additional descriptive words used to indicate the severity of one's condition.

The qualitative terms "mild", "moderate", and "severe" are used to describe the types of cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy physiotherapy helps a patient with cerebral palsy improve their motor and movement skills. Cerebral palsy physiotherapy generally consists of a few types of physical therapy. Physical therapy helps a cerebral palsy physiotherapy patient to improve their gross motor skills. Gross motor skills are those that utilize the large muscles in the body, such as those in the arms and legs. This cerebral palsy physiotherapy can help improve a patient's balance and movement.

Learning to walk, stand without aid, use a wheelchair or other adaptive equipment, and other movement skills can be greatly improved with cerebral palsy physiotherapy. Physical therapists help prevent further development of muscular-skeletal problems in cerebral palsy physiotherapy patients. They do this by preventing muscle weakening and deterioration through proper cerebral palsy physiotherapy techniques. (Crickmay, 1981) (Cogher, Savage & Smith, 1992) Another part of cerebral palsy physiotherapy is occupational therapy.

Occupational therapy facilitates the development of fine motor skills. Fine motor skills involve the use of smaller muscles, such as those in the face, fingers, toes, hands, and feet. This type of cerebral palsy physiotherapy also teaches daily living skills like eating, dressing, writing, and other fine motor skills. Speech and language therapy and sensory integration therapy may also be incorporated into a cerebral palsy physiotherapy program. Speech and language therapy enables a cerebral palsy patient to more effectively communicate with others by developing the facial and jaw muscles, improving speech or sign language communication, and providing communication tools (such as computers and other visual tools). (Crickmay, 1981) There is still very little known about cerebral palsy, making it very hard to find an effective cerebral palsy treatment.

Right now, there is no specific cerebral palsy treatment used for patients and is individually based. Depending on the severity of the cerebral palsy, most of the cerebral palsy treatment goals are to work up to a level of greatest independence. Cerebral palsy treatment is often a lifelong process including physical therapy, medical devices, occupational therapy, drug therapy, surgeries, as well. There are many available options that can maximize the physical and mental potential of an afflicted child, other than therapy. Treatment is usually multi-disciplinary in approach and can involve medication, a wide array of therapies, and surgical operations. One treatment is medication.

Physicians usually prescribe drugs for those who have seizures associated with cerebral palsy. These medications have proved effective in preventing seizures in many patients. Drugs are also sometimes used to control spastic movements particularly following a surgical procedure. However, drugs often carry significant side effects. The hyperbaric oxygen chamber is an alternative option. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a cylindrical one person chamber.

The chamber's pressure slowly forces oxygen into the body's fluids and tissues, restoring circulation where blood flow was once reduced or blocked. Proponents contend that HBO therapy has helped affected children improve their speech, reduce spastic movements, increase cerebral blood flow, improved vision, hearing, and behavior, regenerate stroke-damaged brain tissue, and reduce or stop the incidence of seizure. Finally, surgery is a last option. It is used in limited cases and is usually selected as a last resort. Surgery is often considered when cerebral palsy is severe enough to affect body movement. The idea behind the surgery is to lengthen the muscles and tendons that are proportionately too short.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to determine which muscle (s) is at fault since many muscles work in concert with one another. Lengthening the wrong muscle can worsen the problem. As well, lengthening a muscle also makes it weaker, usually requiring months of recovery. Other experimental surgical approaches are still controversial and are usually undergone with caution.