What is paralysis? Symptoms and treatment of paralysis

What is paralysis? This is a person's condition, in which he is completely deprived of motor abilities because of the lack of strength in the muscles. This circumstance is caused by the defeat of nerve fibers: the patient is not able to move independently and becomes dependent on the surrounding people.

Most paralysis of nerves is a consequence of serious negative processes in the body, but some of its forms can act as independent diseases: Erb's paralysis, Bell's paralysis, Parkinson's disease, polio, cerebral palsy.

Methods of diagnosis

Diagnosis of the disease caused by the defeat of nerve fibers, consists of:

• Examination by a neurologist;
• Fluoroscopy;
• Computer and magnetic resonance tomography;
• Myography;
• Neurosonography;
• Checking the reflex abilities of the lower extremities (Achilles, plantar, knee reflexes and reception of Endrashik).

Consequences of immobility

What is paralysis? How to care for a patient who is in immobility? Prolonged bed rest, caused by forced inaction, negatively affects the health of the paralyzed person. When in a lying position for more than 4 days, the patient experiences a decrease in muscle tone, there are problems with blood pressure, joint motility decreases. Along the way, metabolic processes are reconstructed in the body, blood glucose is rising, the nitrogen-calcium balance is disturbed.

Due to paralysis and recumbency caused by this condition of the body, the rate of liquefaction of bones rapidly increases, the risk of infection of the urinary system increases, urinary incontinence occurs, dizziness and fainting occur, especially when the position of the body changes and the head turns sharply. In the process of breathing, the volume of the lungs is used in part, blood circulation is disturbed, which subsequently threatens with thrombosis.

Caring for a paralyzed person

A patient in need of this period of special care should be aware that stiffness in the joints should not lead to complete immobility. Even with paralysis, you need to move, perform various exercises because of your own abilities. Therefore, from the beginning of bed rest, the necessary component of quality treatment should be gymnastics and joint work. If the patient is unable to do it himself, he should be helped. Breathing exercises are aimed at involving all the lungs in the process, which are inactive during paralysis.

What is facial paralysis?

Bell's paralysis is quite widespread, the causes of which are:

• Infectious diseases (diphtheria, epidemic parotitis);
• Traumatic injuries;
• Supercooling;
• Cancerous tumors;
• Violation of blood flow in hypertension and atherosclerosis;
• The effects of otitis media;
• Inflammatory processes in the brain.

Facial paralysis develops very rapidly and is able to manifest itself at any age, but most of all it affects people who have crossed the 60-year-old line. 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 is due to viral damage or an immune malfunction.

Symptoms of facial paralysis

Symptoms of a dangerous condition are:

• Pain behind the ear, often on the eve of muscle weakness in the face;
• Absence on the affected side of mimicry and excessive muscular contraction in the opposite part of the face. So, when you try to smile at the patient's mouth, it will be turned to a healthy side;
• Muscular weakness, able to develop in a matter of hours;
• Wide opening of the eye gap. The sick person is not able to close the 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 take to cure it? The tactics of treating facial paralysis are chosen depending on the degree of nerve damage and most often consists of 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.

Bury the patient's eye with a natural tear or an isotonic solution, as well as applying a bandage. After a week of treatment, vitamin complexes and drugs for improving nerve conduction are prescribed.

In parallel, the following procedures are used:

• physiotherapy;
• acupuncture;
• Massage of the collar zone;
• Laser therapy;
• ultrasound;
• Electric field of UHF.

In severe cases, a surgical procedure is used, which must be performed no later than 3 months after the disease was discovered. Otherwise, the pathology may 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 shell. Then the doctor assigns certain exercises to the facial muscles, thanks to which he can fully recover in most cases.

Danger of motor lack of movement

Paralysis of the limbs is the result of a lesion of the spinal cord. With the full form, the integrity of this body is violated. The degree of its defeat affects the muscular inconsistency of a particular part of the body.

Damage to the spinal cord at the 4th, 5th and 6th cervical vertebra leads to tetraplegia, a paralysis of all 4 limbs, but the patient can flex and raise his hands. With lesions in the zone of the 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae, the legs are removed, the hands and wrists are paralyzed; The patient can only move his shoulder and move his hands very slightly.

If the lesion occurs at or above the 4th cervical vertebra, respiration becomes paralyzed, which in most cases results in a fatal outcome.

Paraplegia is the paralysis of both legs, which is caused by the transverse lesion of the spinal cord in the zone of the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae.

In all situations, damage to the spinal cord is characterized by a violation of the sensitivity of the affected areas.

Symptomatic of paralysis of the limbs

Immobilization of the extremities is manifested by the following symptoms:

• Partial reduction of muscle strength, which leads to spasmodic (convulsive) paralysis;
• Lack of pain sensitivity;
• Urinary incontinence and urinary incontinence;
• Insufficient blood flow in the affected limbs.

Causes of paralysis of the limbs

The causes of lack of motor limbs are:

• Congenital diseases;
• The tumor formations that pinch the spinal cord;
• Inflammatory processes in the spinal cord.

Accidents also play a role.

How to restore paralyzed limbs?

Treatment of paralysis of the limbs, which arose as a result of an accident, is to ensure the functioning of the circulatory and respiratory systems, vital to the body. Artificial ventilation may be used . The patient is prescribed a long bed rest.

An important factor on the road to recovery is physical exercise and a variety of rehabilitation procedures. In the process of gymnastics to ensure blood supply to paralyzed muscles, the affected limbs are set in motion in a passive way. A certain series of exercises is also carried out for healthy muscles. As soon as it becomes clear that the muscle paralysis has disappeared, special motor exercises will be required.

Also used is ergotherapy - a set of rehabilitation measures aimed at restoring everyday life and habitual employment of a person taking into account the physical limitations present.

A key role in the process of treatment, which is sufficiently long in time, is played by the psychological support of a paralyzed person feeling incomplete. The struggle with the emerging complexes is carried out with the use of psychotherapy and methods of positive thinking.

Severe neurologic disease: cerebral palsy

Children's cerebral palsy is an incurable disease, a feature of which is the lack of its progress, that is, further development. The main causes of cerebral palsy for today are:

• Hypoxia of the child immediately after birth or while in the womb. In most cases, the cause of paralysis is the pathology that occurs during the period of gestation (various types of infections, toxicosis, impaired blood circulation of the placenta) and leading to incomplete development of the brain areas responsible for body balance and its reflex mechanisms. As a result of these processes, the 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 labor, delivery after a long anhydrous period, an incorrect position of the fetus;
• Hemolytic disease of the newborn, during which the child's brain is poisoned. It can be caused by a liver failure in the fetus or an incompatibility of its group or the Rh factor of blood with the mother;
• Chronic or acute diseases of a woman during pregnancy (heart diseases, rubella, obesity, anemia, diabetes, hypertension). Also dangerous for the child factors are the admission of the future mother of medicines, in particular tranquilizers, and negative phenomena: stress, physical trauma, alcoholism, psychological discomfort, drug use;
• Abnormal pregnancy, caused by toxicosis, threats of interruption, immunological incompatibility of the mother and child;
• Complications in the process of delivery, provoking conditions for the onset of asphyxia and mechanical trauma of the head - secondary factors that cause brain damage.

The most severe form of cerebral palsy is spastic tetraplegia, often found in premature babies. Half of these babies born before the term, incidentally, deformed trunk, epileptic seizures, limb mobility, strabismus, atrophy of the optic nerves, hearing impairment, microcephaly (pathology of the development of the brain). A child with a diagnosis of "cerebral palsy" is not able to serve himself and engage in some simple labor activity throughout his life.

Children's cerebral palsy in the hemiplegic form is characterized by a violation of the limbs on one side of the trunk. The hand suffers more than the leg.

Dyskinetic, or hyperkinetic, form is manifested by increased muscle tone, hearing loss, paralysis. The intellect 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.

Children's paralysis: signs

Symptoms of cerebral palsy are:

• Delay in the manifestation of motor activity (bends, flexions of legs and arms).
• Complete immobility of limbs.
• Seizures and epileptic seizures.
• The lag in the development of speech.
• Weak head restraint.

Treatment of cerebral palsy

Paralysis, the symptoms of which are a weighty reason for contacting a pediatric neurologist for the purpose of establishing an accurate diagnosis and the appointment of the right therapy, can not be completely cured, but the quality of life of a sick child can be significantly improved. In the first years of life, medical measures are carried out to reduce seizures, muscle tone, and improve the motor ability of the joints. These actions reduce the risk of deformity of the skeleton, improve the ability of the baby to maintain balance, produce normal limb movements and acquire the simplest skills of self-service.

A child diagnosed with cerebral palsy should be registered with a neurologist, a pediatrician, an orthopedist, a speech therapist, a rehabilitologist and a psychiatrist. It is the complex approach of the necessary specialists that will determine its maximum adaptation to life.

Paralysis of children is treated by combining several methods. This is the reception of medicines, constant medical gymnastics, operative therapy, treatment in sanatoria.