Spastic paralysis is caused by nerve injury or disease affecting the central nervous system. It is often caused by spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, encephalitis, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, or hereditary spastic paraplegia. Symptoms include muscle stiffness, spasms, and uncontrollable reflex movements.
Spastic paralysis is caused by a nerve injury or nerve disease affecting the central nervous system. As a result, individuals experience muscle stiffness, muscle spasms, and exaggerated, uncontrollable reflex movements. Spastic paralysis is often caused by distinct conditions such as spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, hereditary spastic paraplegia, or encephalitis.
Spinal cord injuries are those that cause the spine to fracture or break, or the vertebrae to move. These injuries affect neurological functioning by destroying the nerve cells assigned to communicate with the brain. Individuals with a spinal cord injury commonly experience spastic movements and paralysis. For some people, such an injury is reversible, but for many, it isn’t.
Spastic paralysis is one of many symptoms found in people who have cerebral palsy. This particular disease is caused by a brain disorder or can be caused by a brain injury. Often people are born with this condition and have experienced symptoms of muscle stiffness and spasms throughout their lives. Other cases occur as a direct result of an early brain injury, which disrupted neurological development within the first two years of a child’s life.
Inflammatory diseases, such as encephalitis, can also cause spastic paralysis. Encephalitis is characterized by inflammation of sensitive brain tissue. As a result of this inflammation, optimal brain functioning is disrupted and a cluster of symptoms become apparent. Some of these symptoms include seizures, speech impairment, hallucinations, severe headaches, impaired motor functioning, and spastic paralysis. While there are a variety of circumstances that lead to inflammatory diseases, one of the main causes of encephalitis is a viral infection.
Two distinct types of encephalitis, which include symptoms of spastic paralysis, are Japanese encephalitis and St. Louis encephalitis. Often spread via mosquito bites, up to 50,000 cases of Japanese encephalitis are reported in Asia each year. A similar form of the virus is also frequently reported in the United States. Both can manifest themselves in very mild forms, which do not present any symptoms. More severe cases of each, however, also trigger spastic movements.
A very rare disease, known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy, also causes spastic paralysis. This particular condition is characterized by waxy protein deposits that collect in the blood vessels of the brain. Some people inherit this condition as a genetic disease, while others have cerebral amyloid angiopathy due to environmental conditions.
Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), also known as familial spastic paralysis, is another disorder passed on genetically to individuals. As the name indicates, spastic symptoms help define this condition. Some people are completely disabled by HSP, while some are only mildly affected and respond well to treatments aimed at reducing symptoms and increasing strength.
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