Spastic hemiplegia
Spastic hemiplegia is a form that affects one side of the body. Generally, injury to muscle-nerves controlled by the brain's left side will cause a right body deficit, and vice versa. Typically, people that have spastic hemiplegia are the most ambulatory, although they generally have dynamic equinus on the affected side and are primarily prescribed ankle-foot orthoses to prevent said equinus.

Spastic Diplegia

Spastic Diplegia is a condition where it affects the lower extremities are affected with little to no upper-body spasticity. The most common form of the spastic forms. Most people with spastic diplegia are fully ambulatory and have a scissors gait . Flexed knees and hips to varying degrees are common. Hip problems, dislocations, and in three-quarters of spastic diplegics, also strabismus (crossed eyes), can be present as well. In addition, these individuals are often nearsighted. The intelligence of a person with spastic diplegia is unaffected by the condition.

Spastic Tetraplegia

Spastic Tetraplegia is a condition where all four limbs affected equally. People with spastic quadriplegia are the least likely to be able to walk, or if they can, if want to walk, because they are too tight and it is too much effort to do so. Some children with quadriplegia also have hemiparetic tremors, an uncontrollable shaking that affects the limbs on one side of the body and impairs normal movement.

Symptoms of Celebral Palsy

All types of Celebral Palsy are characterized by abnormal muscle tone (slouching over while sitting), reflexes, or motor development and coordination. There can be joint and bone deformities and contractures (permanently fixed, tight muscles and joints).Scissor walking (where the knees come in and cross) and toe walking,are common among people with Celebral Palsy who are able to walk. The effects of cerebral palsy fall on a continuum of motor dysfunction which may range from virtually unnoticeable to "clumsy" and awkward movements on one end of the spectrum to such severe impairments that coordinated movements are almost impossible on the other end of the spectrum.

Babies born with severe Celebral Palsy often have an irregular posture; their bodies may be either very floppy or very stiff. Birth defects, such as spinal curvature, a small jawbone, or a small head sometimes occur along with Celebral Palsy . Symptoms may appear, change, or become more severe as a child gets older. Classically, Celebral Palsy becomes evident when the baby reaches the developmental stage at 9-12 years old, and is starting to mobilise, where preferential use of limbs, asymmetry or gross motor developmental delay is seen.

Secondary conditions can include seizures, epilepsy, speech or communication disorders, eating problems, sensory impairments, mental retardation, learning disabilities and/or behavioral disorders. Speech and language disorders are common in people with Cerebral Palsy.

Causes of Celebral Palsy

Despite much debate, the cause of the majority of cases of Celebral Palsy is uncertain. While in certain cases there is no identifiable cause, other etiologies include problems in intrauterine development (e.g. exposure to radiation, infection), asphyxia before birth, hypoxia of the brain, and birth trauma during labor and delivery, and complications in the perinatal period or during childhood. Celebral Palsy is also more common in multiple births.

Many cases of cerebral palsy, and other conditions that an infant has at birth, are caused by the death in very early pregnancy of an identical twin. This may occur when twins have a joint circulation through sharing the same placenta. Not all identical twins share the same blood supply (monochorionic twins), but if they do, the suggestion is that perturbations in blood flow between them can cause the death of one and damage to the development of the surviving fetus.

Between 40% and 50% of all children who develop cerebral palsy were born prematurely. Premature infants are vulnerable, in part because their organs are not fully developed, increasing the risk of hypoxic injury to the brain that may manifest as Celebral Palsy. A problem in interpreting this is the difficulty in differentiating between Celebral Palsy caused by damage to the brain that results from inadequate oxygenation, and Celebral Palsythat arises from prenatal brain damage that then precipitates premature delivery.

Prognosis

The ability to live independently with Celebral Palsy also varies greatly depending on the severity of the disability. Some individuals with Celebral Palsy will require personal assistant services for all activities of daily living. Others can live semi-independently, needing support only for certain activities. Still others can live in complete independence. The need for personal assistance often changes with increasing age and associated functional decline.

Surgery for people with Celebral Palsy usually involves one or a combination of, Loosening tight muscles and releasing fixed joints, most often performed on the hips, knees, hamstrings, and ankles.