In the article, we will consider how many people with cerebral palsy live.
The disease stands for cerebral palsy. This is a concept that unites a group of motor disorders resulting from damage to certain brain structures in the perinatal period. Cerebral palsy may include mono-, para-, hemi-, tetraparesis and paralysis, pathological disorders of muscle tone, speech disorders, hyperkinesis, unsteady gait, impaired coordination of movements, the child’s lag in mental and motor development, frequent falls.
What disorders are with this disease?
With cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment, epilepsy, mental disorders, visual and hearing impairment can be noted. This pathology is diagnosed mainly by anamnestic and clinical data. The algorithm for the diagnostic examination of a child with cerebral palsy is aimed at determining the concomitant pathology and the exclusion of other congenital or postpartum pathologies. People with cerebral palsy should undergo rehabilitation therapy, prescribed for life, and, if necessary, receive medical, surgical and physiotherapeutic treatment.
How many people live with cerebral palsy, read below.
Reasons for the development of cerebral palsy
According to scientific data, this pathology arises as a result of the influence on the central nervous system of a child of a variety of damaging factors that lead to improper development or death of some parts of the brain. Moreover, the influence of such factors is observed in the perinatal period - before, during and in the first 4 weeks of a child’s life. The main pathogenetic link in the development of cerebral palsy is hypoxia, which causes various causative factors. First of all, those areas of the brain that are responsible for providing reflex motor mechanisms and maintaining balance are affected. As a result, paresis and paralysis, disorders of muscle tone, pathological acts of movement, typical of this disease, arise.
How many years do people with cerebral palsy live, it is interesting to many patients.
Etiological factors
The etiological factors affecting during fetal development are various pathologies of pregnancy:
- fetoplacental insufficiency;
- toxicosis;
- premature detachment of the placenta;
- nephropathy of pregnant women,
- rhesus conflict;
- infections (rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes, toxoplasmosis, syphilis);
- threatened abortion;
- somatic pathologies of the mother (hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, heart defects, arterial hypertension) and her injuries during pregnancy.
The risk factors affecting the occurrence of cerebral palsy during childbirth include:
- pelvic presentation of the fetus;
- premature, protracted or rapid birth;
- large fruit;
- narrow pelvis;
- discoordinated labor;
- prolonged anhydrous period before delivery.
The main causes of cerebral palsy after childbirth
The main reasons for the appearance of cerebral palsy at the postpartum stage are hemolytic disease and asphyxiation of the newborn, which may be associated with aspiration of amniotic fluid, malformations of the lungs, and pathologies of pregnancy. The most common postpartum cause of the disease is toxic brain damage in hemolytic disease, which develops due to immunological conflict or incompatibility of the blood of the fetus and mother.
What affects the life expectancy of people with cerebral palsy?
Symptoms of cerebral palsy
This disease can have different manifestations with varying degrees of severity. The picture of cerebral palsy depends on the depth and location of damage to the brain structures. In some cases, the disease can be seen in the first hours of the baby's life. However, most often the symptoms become apparent after a few months, when the children begin to lag significantly behind their nervous and mental development.
The initial symptom of the disease may be the late formation of motor skills. In this case, the child does not roll over for a long time, does not hold his head, is not interested in toys, he is not able to consciously move limbs, hold toys. When trying to put him on his feet, he stands on tiptoe.
How many years do children with cerebral palsy live, parents want to find out.
Paresis
Paresis can be observed only in one limb, having a one-sided character, or cover all limbs. Speech disturbance (dysarthria) is noted. If the pathology is accompanied by paresis of the muscles of the larynx and pharynx, then difficulties arise when swallowing (dysphagia). Often cerebral palsy is accompanied by a significant increase in muscle tone, skeletal deformities typical for this disease (chest deformities, scoliosis) are formed. Cerebral palsy occurs with the formation of joint contractures, which exacerbates motor disorders. This leads to the development of a chronic pain syndrome in the neck, shoulders, back and legs.
With cerebral palsy, strabismus, digestive system disorders, respiratory disorders, and urinary incontinence can be observed. In approximately 20-40% of cases, the disease occurs with epilepsy. About 60% of these children have vision, hearing problems. Possible complete deafness or hearing loss. In half of the cases, the disease is combined with endocrine pathology and is accompanied by various stages of mental retardation, oligophrenia, perceptual disorders, learning disabilities, behavioral abnormalities, etc. However, about 35% of children have normal intelligence.
Non-progressive disease
It is a chronic but not progressive disease. As children grow and the nervous system develops, previously hidden pathological manifestations that create a false sense of the progression of the disease can be detected.
People with cerebral palsy undergo lifelong treatment. He conducts a variety of physiotherapy, massages, rehabilitation complexes. If necessary, if a person cannot move independently, he can use a wheelchair. If, due to the complexity of the disease, he cannot control it, relatives provide assistance.
How old children with cerebral palsy live depends on many factors.
Complications of cerebral palsy
Among the main and most frequent complications of cerebral palsy, the following can be noted:
- Orthopedic and surgical complications: developmental disorders of the hip joints, curvature of the knee joints, forearms and feet.
- Epileptic syndrome, which is manifested by bouts of seizures, is especially often observed in the hemiparetic form of cerebral palsy. Convulsions aggravate the course of the disease, there are some difficulties with rehabilitation and pose a great danger to life. In patients with cerebral palsy, various forms of epilepsy are found, both benign with a positive prognosis and extremely severe.
- Cognitive impairment, which includes disorders of memory, intelligence, attention and speech. The main speech disorders in cerebral palsy are stuttering, pronunciation disorders (dysarthria), lack of speech in cases of preserved hearing and intelligence (alalia), and inhibition of speech development. In this case, speech and motor disorders are interrelated, therefore, each form of the pathological condition is characterized by specific changes in speech.
How many people live with cerebral palsy?
In the vast majority of cases, it is extremely difficult to determine how many people live with this disease, since this severe pathology can occur with damage to various body systems. In certain cases, with adequate treatment, a person with cerebral palsy lives a long and full life, with practically no special health problems. In severe cases, a child with a similar developmental disorder may die within a few years. Cerebral palsy is a collective concept for a whole set of syndromes of motor disorders observed as a result of intrauterine developmental pathologies, which led to damage to the brain structures.
If we talk about how many people live with cerebral palsy, we should pay attention to the problem of premature aging of patients. This is a rather acute question with such a disease. Science has proven that by about 40 years old people are prone to a decrease in life expectancy. The physical body in people suffering from cerebral palsy wears out much faster, due to the deformation of internal organs, bones and joints. In addition, the body wears out as a result of taking numerous medications, including for eliminating the pain syndrome, which is prescribed to patients with cerebral palsy throughout life. Externally, patients with cerebral palsy look much older than their biological age. If at the same time they were not given proper attention, development and rehabilitation from birth, then many organs and systems of the body of such people, for example, respiratory and cardiovascular, may remain underdeveloped. So they work for wear, which also affects how old people with cerebral palsy live.
Another important factor that directly affects life is the type, complexity and course of the disease itself, the presence of complications. With severe forms of the disease, the constant occurrence of epileptic seizures, the life expectancy of people with cerebral palsy cannot be average.
Often, with proper and timely therapy and all the necessary procedures to improve the general condition, patients with cerebral palsy survive up to 30-40 years, and sometimes to retirement age.
Forecast
The prognosis for this disease directly depends on its form, the continuity and timeliness of the rehabilitation therapy. In some cases, the disease leads to profound disability. But often, through the efforts of doctors and parents of a sick child, it is possible to compensate for existing violations.
We examined how many people with cerebral palsy live and the features of this disease.