- Spastic Syndrome:
- are the most common (70% of cases) and most ammenable to surgery;
- due to upper motor neuron involvment
- mild to severe motor impairment
- characterized by increased muscle tone and hyperreflexia, with slow, restricted movements (because of co contraction of agonist and antagonists);
- spacsticity is characterized by increased muscle activity with increasingly rapid stretch;
- hemiplegia
- both limbs on one side: arm usually worse than leg
- all hemiplegics will walk, regardless of treatment;
- present with toe walking only;
- diplegia:
- pts have more extensive involvement of the lower extremity than the upper extremity;
- most diplegics will eventually walk;
- IQ may be normal, strabismus is common;
- gait is typically characterized by a crouched gait, toe walking, and flexed knees;
- heel cord lengthening alone may exacerbate crouched gait;
- ref: Single-Event Multilevel Surgery in Children with Spastic Diplegia. A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
- paraplegia (both legs): sparing of arms;
- quadriplegia: look for oral, lingual, dys f(x); dysarthria;
- Athetoid or Dyskinetic syndromes:
- 20% of cases
- result from basal ganglia involvement
- present w/ slow, writhing, involuntary movements;
- may affect the extremities (athetoid), or the proximal parts of limbs and the trunk (dystonic);
- Aburt, jerky distal movements (Choreiform) also may occur;
- Movements incr during w/ emotional tension and disappear during sleep.
- Dysarthia is present and is often severe.
- most difficult to correct with surgery;
- Ataxic syndrome:
- 10% of cases;
- involvement of the cerebellum or its pathways;
- weakness, incoordination, and intention tremor produce unsteadiness,
wide based gait, and difficulty with rapid or fine movements.
- poorly ammenable to surgical correction