Paralysis
Dr. Nilesh Bakale | Consultant Neurosurgeon in Karad
Paralysis is when you can’t move certain parts of your body after something goes wrong with their connection to your brain. It comes in many different forms and can be temporary or permanent or even come and go.
Paralysis is when you can’t move certain parts of your body after something goes wrong with their connection to your brain. It comes in many different forms and can be temporary or permanent or even come and go.
Someone who is paralyzed because of a birth defect or sudden injury often can’t feel or move anything at all in their affected body parts. Someone paralyzed by a medical condition, like multiple sclerosis (MS), might feel tingling or muscle weakness.
Paralysis can cause problems with blood flow, breathing, how well your organs work, speaking or swallowing, sexual responses, or controlling the urge to go to the bathroom, depending on where you’re paralyzed and how bad it is.
Types of Paralysis
Complete paralysis is when you can’t move or control your paralyzed muscles at all. You also may not be able to feel anything in those muscles.
Partial or incomplete paralysis is when you still have some feeling in, and possibly control over, your paralyzed muscles. This is sometimes called paresis.
Localized paralysis affects just one specific area, like your face, hands, feet, or vocal cords.
Generalized paralysis is more widespread in your body and is grouped by how much of your body is affected. The type usually depends on where your brain or spinal cord is injured.
- Monoplegia is a kind of generalized paralysis that affects just one limb.
- Diplegia affects the same area on both sides, like both arms, both legs, or both sides of your face.
- Hemiplegia affects just one side of your body and is usually caused by a stroke, which damages one side of your brain.
- Quadriplegia (or tetraplegia) is when all four limbs are paralyzed, sometimes along with certain organs.
- Paraplegia is paralysis from the waist down.
- Locked-in syndrome is the rarest and most severe form of paralysis, where a person loses control of all their muscles except the ones that control their eye movements.
Paralysis can be stiff, or spastic, when your muscles are tight and jerky. Most people with cerebral palsy have spastic paralysis.
It can also be floppy, or flaccid, when your muscles sag and eventually shrink.
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