Cerebral Palsy Types - OmniMedicalSearch.com

Conditions & Diseases: Brain & Nervous System

Cerebral Palsy

See Also:
Cerebral Palsy: Introduction
Cerebral Palsy: Types
Cerebral Palsy: Causes & Risk Factors
Cerebral Palsy: Signs & Symptoms
Cerebral Palsy: Medical Tests & Diagnosis Methods
Cerebral Palsy: Treatment & Prevention Options

Types

Cerebral Palsy can be classified based on movement disorder and/or by the number of limbs affected. Classification based on the number of limbs affected includes:

Quadriplegia: When all four limbs are involved.
Diplegia: When all four limbs are involved with legs being more severely affected than arms.
Hemiplegia: One side of the body is affected with the arm being more severely affected than leg.
Triplegia: Three limbs are affected, usually with both the arms and a leg.
Monoplegia: One limb is affected usually an arm (2).

The location of a brain injury determines the affect on movement. Classification based on movement disorder is as follows:

Spastic Cerebral Palsy: Damage to the motor cortex leads to this most common type of cerebral palsy. The movement of spastic muscles is limited due to their tightness and stiffness. Mild spasticity affects only a few movements and severe spasticity affects the whole body (2).

Choreo-Athetoid cerebral palsy: Damage to basal ganglia (groups of cerebral nuclei that play a role in the control and production of movement) or cerebellum causes difficulty in controlling and coordinating movement.

Chorea: Jerky movements of head, arms or legs (2).

Athetoid Cerebral Palsy: Damage to the basal ganglia in the midbrain leads to Athetoid Cerebral Palsy causing difficulty in speech. Constant involuntary writhing movements of hands, feet, arms or legs are observed in these patients.

Ataxic Cerebral Palsy: Damage to the cerebellum leads to Ataxic Cerebral Palsy causing a disturbance of balance and depth perception. The patients usually have a poor muscle tone, staggering walk, and unsteady hands.

Mixed Types: The symptoms in this type do not correspond to any particular type of cerebral palsy. Some muscles are too light and some are too relaxed in children suffering from mixed type of cerebral palsy (1 & 3).

Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com

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Page Last Modified:
12/02/2010