Types of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a nervous system developmental disease. Usually CP is referred to as a central movement disorder; which is caused by non-progressive cerebral injury or encephalodysplasia during pregnancy during childbirth or after birth up to about one month due to many reasons. The incidence of CP is about 1.2-2.5%, clinical features are abnormal in posture and muscular tension, involuntary movement and ataxia, which are usually associated with sensory disturbance, cognitive dysfunction, behavioral disorder, secondary skeletal muscle abnormalities and epileptic seizures. The non-progressive central movement disorders, which are also called acquired cerebral palsy, are caused by many reasons one month after birth. Approximately 10% of CP cases include: the cause of congenital brain disorder etiology, premature matrix hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, hypoxic ischemic injury, spastic diplegia, infantile hemiplegia, paraplegia and quadriplegia, extrapyramidal syndrome, hands athetosis, bilirubin encephalopathy, neonatal congenital ataxia, bridge cerebella dysplasia, flaccid paralysis, which all belong to the acquired development diseases. The diseases of intrauterine infection caused by intrauterine and neonatal infection, result in cerebral malformations and anomalies, that belong to infectious development diseases. Those patients show more or less symptoms of mental retardation.
Spastic Hemiplegia
The most common type, involving one side of the body, upper limbs are shown to be worse than lower limbs, far-end worse than near-end, face is usually normal. Children often show obvious symptoms after 3 months, such as less limbs move, persistent fist, grasp reflex disappears, forearm pronation posture, circle gait and so on. Part of the patient's first symptoms can be low muscle tone, and then it turns to spasticity. Mental retardation and epilepsy are common in this type. Epileptic seizures show partial or secondarily generalized seizures. Strabismus is very common.
Spastic Quadriplegia
Spastic quadriplegia is usually found in children who suffer from severe asphyxia. Their limbs muscle tension is increased, often showing signs of opisthotonos, and with supranuclear bulbar paralysis, causing swallowing and articulation disorder. About half of the patients show signs of epilepsy and mental retardation.
Dyskinetic CP
Dyskinetic CP is found in about 10% of CP patients, main causes are hypoxic brain injury and neonatal nuclear jaundice. Patients commonly show hypotonia in early infancy, and then have extrapyramidal symptoms, such as athetosis. Salivation, dysphagia and the language barrier can be found as well. Deep tendon reflex in the lower limbs is shown to be normal or increased. Patients may have persistent primitive reflex, intelligence is mostly in the normal or critical state. About 1/4 of the patients have epilepsy. Cases caused by nuclear icterus show athetosis, sensory deafness, enamel hypoplasia, etc.
Ataxia CP

This type of CP is present in about 10% of CP patients; symptoms are usually hypotonia, balance disorder and motor retardation in infancy, Dysmetria, intention tremor in childhood, pyramid sign is not common, and many patients show signs of mental retardation, but nothing serious.

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