Paralysis is the inability whether temporary or permanent to move a part of the body.
Monoplegia.
Monoplegia is paralysis of a single area of the body, most typically one limb. People with monoplegia typically retain control over the rest of their body but cannot move or feel sensations in the affected limb.
What Causes Monoplegia?
Though cerebral palsy is the leading cause of monoplegia, several other injuries and ailments can lead to this form of partial paralysis, including:
Strokes
Tumors
Nerve damage due to injuries or diseases
Nerve impingement
Motor neuron damage
Brain injuries
Impacted or severed nerves at the affected location.
Hemiplegia.
Hemiplegia affects an arm and a leg on the same side of the body.
Hemiplegia often begins with a sensation of pins and needles, progresses to muscle weakness, and escalates to complete paralysis.
What Causes Hemiplegia?
As with monoplegia, the most common cause is cerebral palsy. However, other conditions, such as incomplete spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, and nervous system disorders can also result in hemiplegia.
Paraplegia.
What is Paraplegia?
Paraplegia refers to paralysis below the waist, and usually affects both legs, the hips, and other functions, such as sexuality and elimination. Though stereotypes of being paralyzed below the waist hold that paraplegic cannot walk, move their legs, or feel anything below the waist, the reality of paraplegia varies from person to person and sometimes, from day to day.
What Causes Paraplegia?
Spinal cord injuries are the most common cause of paraplegia. These injuries impede the brain's ability to send and receive signals below the site of the injury. Some other causes include:
Spinal cord infections
Spinal cord lesions
Brain tumors
Brain infections
Rarely, nerve damage at the hips or waist; this more typically causes some variety of monoplegia or hemiplegia.
Brain or spinal cord oxygen deprivation due to choking, surgical accidents, violence, and similar causes.
Stroke
Congenital malformations in the brain or spinal cord.
Quadriplegia.
Quadriplegia, which is often referred to as tetraplegia, is paralysis below the neck. All four limbs, as well as the torso, are typically affected.
What Causes Quadriplegia?
Occasionally, quadriplegia is a temporary condition due to brain injuries, stroke, or temporary compression of spinal cord nerves. Some spinal cord injury survivors temporarily suffer from quadriplegia immediately after the injury, then experience a less systematic form of paralysis as swelling goes down, the nerves become less compressed, or surgery reverses some damage.
As with paraplegia, spinal cord injuries are the leading cause of quadriplegia. The most common causes of spinal cord injuries include automobile accidents, acts of violence, falls, and sporting injuries, especially injuries due to contact sports such as football. Traumatic brain injuries can also cause this form of paralysis.
Other sources of quadriplegia include:
️ Acquired brain injuries due to infections, stroke, and other disease-related processes.
️ Loss of oxygen to the brain and spinal cord due to choking, anesthesia-related accidents, anaphylactic shock, and some other causes.
️ Spinal and brain lesions
️ Spinal and brain tumors
️ Spinal and brain infections
️ Catastrophic nerve damage throughout the body
️ Congenital abnormalities
️ Early brain injuries, especially pre-birth or during-birth injuries that lead to cerebral palsy, which can produce a range of symptoms, including varying degrees of paralysis
️ Allergic reactions to drugs
️ Drug or alcohol overdoses.
Physiotherapy Treatments.
️ Physical therapy is frequently used to help paralysis patients not only build muscle mass and fight atrophy, but to re-learn how to control their bodies after a paralyzing injury.
️ Activity-based therapy centers offer a broad range of exercises and activities for paraplegics and quadriplegics to help them live a healthier lifestyle.
️ Paraplegics often engage in various forms of exercise, such as water aerobics, lifting weights, and more to improve circulation and prevent muscle atrophy.
References
https://www.spinalcord.com/types-of-paralysis
https://www.spinalcord.com/blog/tetraplegia-quadriplegia-paraplegia-what-is-the-differencr
Yugan Maleesha.
