70 Sentences With "diplegia" | Random Sentence Generator

Maya was diagnosed with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy more than two years ago.

Spastic diplegia is one of nine different types of cerebral palsy and affects both the arms and legs, according to Cerebral Palsy Guidance.

That's because of a woman named Beatrice Timmerman, who learned that the 6-year-old with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy needed a service dog to help her with every day life.

There are several ways of getting diplegia in the arms. It is very common for people with cerebral palsy to have diplegia of the arms. Although most people with cerebral palsy have diplegia in their legs, some people have diplegia in their arms. Other ways of getting paralysis of both arms is through a traumatic event or injury.

Diplegia of the legs consists of paralysis of both legs. There are 3 levels of severity. Mild diplegia means the person can usually walk but might walk a little differently, can usually play and run to a limited extent. Moderate diplegia means the person can usually walk but with a slight bend in the knees.

The term diplegia can refer to any bodily area, such as the face, arms, or legs.

In 1890 Sachs and Peterson first referenced to the term diplegia, along with the word paraplegia, for their cerebral palsy classification. In 1955 the word diplegia was used in the clinical field to describe a patient whose limbs were affected in a symmetrical way. This included limbs on the same side of the body thus including hemiplegia. Later in 1956 diplegia was presented as a form of bilateral cerebral palsy affecting like parts on either side of the body.

In 1965 Milani Comparetti distinguished diplegia from tetraplegia by considering the patient's upper limb's ability to express a sufficient support reaction. Thus diplegia usually refers to just symmetry of one body part or limb, as the legs, or arms. While tetraplegia or quadriplegia refers to paralysis of all 4, both arms and legs.

Minor white matter damage usually is exhibited through slight developmental delays and deficits in posture, vision systems, and motor skills. Many patients exhibit spastic diplegia, a condition characterized by increased muscle tone and spasticity in the lower body. The gait of PVL patients with spastic diplegia exhibits an unusual pattern of flexing during walking.

The cerebral palsy sport classification system is designed for people with several types of paralysis and movement including quadriplegia, triplegia, diplegia, hemiplegia, monoplegia, spasticity, athetosis, and ataxia. Quadriplegia impacts the whole body, including the head, torso and all the limbs. Triplegia impacts three of the four limbs. Diplegia is when there is greater functional use of the lower limbs than the upper limbs.

Usually occurs within 2 periods: # With premature babies # full diagnosis usually between ages 2–5 years Diplegia is usually not diagnosed before the age of 2 years yet the symptoms and signs of the earlier stages are typical and should enable the diagnosis to be made before the contractures have occurred. Parents suspecting diplegia should take their child to the doctor to potentially get an earlier diagnosis.

Typically, people that have spastic hemiplegia are the most ambulatory, although they generally have dynamic equinus on the affected side and are primarily prescribed ankle-foot orthoses to prevent said equinus.[11] Spastic diplegia (the lower extremities are affected with little to no upper- body spasticity). The most common form of the spastic forms. Most people with spastic diplegia are fully ambulatory and have a scissors gait.

People with diplegia in their arms experience difficulties in reaching, pointing, grasping, releasing, manipulating objects and many other motor functions performed by the hands and arms.

Despite this reality and the fact that muscle tightness is the symptom of spastic diplegia and not the cause, symptoms rather than cause are typically seen as the primary area of focus for treatment, especially surgical treatment, except when a selective dorsal rhizotomy is brought into consideration, or when an oral baclofen regimen is attempted. Unlike any other condition that may present with similar effects, spastic diplegia is entirely congenital in origin—that is, it is almost always acquired shortly before or during a baby's birth process. Things like exposure to toxins, traumatic brain injury, encephalitis, meningitis, drowning, or suffocation do not tend to lead to spastic diplegia in particular or even cerebral palsy generally. Overall, the most common cause of spastic diplegia is Periventricular leukomalacia, more commonly known as neonatal asphyxia or infant hypoxia—a sudden in-womb shortage of oxygen-delivery through the umbilical cord.

Diplegia, when used singularly, refers to paralysis affecting symmetrical parts of the body. This is different from hemiplegia which refers to spasticity restricted to one side of the body, and quadriplegia which requires the involvement of all four limbs but not necessarily symmetrical. Diplegia is the most common cause of crippling in children, specifically in children with cerebral palsy. Other causes may be due to injury of the spinal cord.

Facial diplegia refers to people with paralysis of both sides of their face. Bilateral occurs when the onset of the second side occurs within one month of the onset of the first side. Facial diplegia occurs in 50% of patients with Guillain–Barré syndrome. Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is the second most common adult-onset muscular dystrophy with facial weakness being a distinct feature of FSHD in over 90% of cases.

The most serious side effect of interferon is a spastic diplegia. Other therapeutic options are embolization and pulsed-dye laser, which improves residual telangiectasias in RICH and in NICH.

There is no set course of progression for people with diplegia. Symptoms may get worse but the neurological part does not change. The primary parts of the brain that are affected by diplegia are the ventricles, fluid filled compartments in the brain, and the wiring from the center of the brain to the cerebral cortex. There is also usually some degeneration of the cerebral neurons, as well as problems in the upper motor neuron system.

The most common cause of diplegia in the legs is cerebral palsy. Paralysis of the legs may also be caused by trauma, injury, or genetics, but this is very rare.

William John Little William John Little (1810–1894) was an English surgeon who is credited with the first medical identification of spastic diplegia, when he observed it in the 1860s amongst children. While spasticity surely existed before that point, Little was the first person to medically record the condition in writing. Thus, for many years, spastic diplegia was known as Little's Disease; only later did the name change. Also, Little founded the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital of London.

The degree of spasticity in spastic diplegia (and, for that matter, other types of spastic CP) varies widely from person to person. No two people with spastic diplegia are exactly alike. Balance problems and/or stiffness in gait can range from barely noticeable all the way to misalignments so pronounced that the person needs crutches (typically forearm crutches/lofstrand crutches) or a cane / walking stick to assist in ambulation. Less often, spasticity is severe enough to compel the person to use a wheelchair.

The treatment for facial diplegia depends on the underlying cause. Some causes are usually treatable such as infectious, toxic, and vascular by treating the main problem first. After the underlying problem is cured, the facial paralysis usually will go away.

A major qualifier in the cases taken on at SLCH, however, is that all of its adults have had only mild cases of spastic diplegia. In September 2008, a SDR was performed that 'closed the gap' on concerns regarding age of the patient in SDR: Columbia- Presbyterian Children's Hospital's Richard C.E. Anderson performed an SDR surgery on a 28-year-old male with moderate spastic diplegia, which by the patient's own report has reduced his muscle tone nearly to the level of a "normal" person and enabled him to walk and exercise much more efficiently; also, Dr. Anderson in the past performed an SDR on a 16-year-old wheelchair- using female with severe spastic diplegia. Reportedly, that particular SDR enabled the young woman to ambulate, whereas before the surgery, she was too tight to do so. In 2011, Dr. Anderson reported that another 16-year-old patient of his was considering undergoing the rhizotomy, but that patient subsequently decided to put her decision on hold .

People with spastic diplegia or other forms of spasticity, or people in intolerable pain, who cannot tolerate side effects of the higher-dose oral medications of the same medication type, are potential candidates for that medication being administered via an intrathecal pump.

Alina Rosenberg (born 29 April, 1992) is a German Paralympic equestrian. Rosenberg has Spastic diplegia, a type of Cerebral palsy. She won a silver medal at the 2016 Paralympic Games in the team event alongside Carolin Schnarre, Elke Philipp and Steffen Zeibig.

Initial diagnosis of HSPs relies upon family history, the presence or absence of additional signs and the exclusion of other nongenetic causes of spasticity, the latter being particular important in sporadic cases. Cerebral and spinal MRI is an important procedure performed in order to rule out other frequent neurological conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, but also to detect associated abnormalities such as cerebellar or corpus callosum atrophy as well as white matter abnormalities. Differential diagnosis of HSP should also exclude spastic diplegia which presents with nearly identical day-to-day effects and even is treatable with similar medicines such as baclofen and orthopedic surgery; at times, these two conditions may look and feel so similar that the only perceived difference may be HSP's hereditary nature versus the explicitly non-hereditary nature of spastic diplegia (however, unlike spastic diplegia and other forms of spastic cerebral palsy, HSP cannot be reliably treated with selective dorsal rhizotomy). Ultimate confirmation of HSP diagnosis can only be provided by carrying out genetic tests targeted towards known genetic mutations.

In general, however, lower-extremity spasticity in spastic diplegia is rarely so great as to totally prevent ambulation—most people with the condition can walk, and can do so with at least a basic amount of overall stability. Regardless, from case to case, steeply varying degrees of imbalance, potential tripping over uneven terrain while walking, or needing to hold on to various surfaces or walls in certain circumstances to keep upright, are typically ever-present potential issues and are much more common occurrences amongst those with spastic diplegia than among those with a normal or near-normal gait pattern. Among some of the people with spastic diplegia who choose to be ambulatory on either an exclusive or predominant basis, one of the seemingly common lifestyle choices is for the person to ambulate within his or her home without an assistive device, and then to use the assistive device, if any, once outdoors. Others may use no assistive device in any indoor situation at all, while always using one when outdoors.

Facial paralysis is usually caused by traumatic, infectious, neurological, metabolic, toxic, vascular, and idiopathic conditions. While over 50% of the cases of unilateral facial paralysis are caused by idiopathic conditions, less than 20% of bilateral cases are idiopathic. The most common infectious cause of facial diplegia is Lyme disease.

Flexed knees and hips to varying degrees are common. Hip problems, dislocations, and in three-quarters of spastic diplegics, also strabismus (crossed eyes), can be present as well. In addition, these individuals are often nearsighted. The intelligence of a person with spastic diplegia is unaffected by the condition.

Individuals with spastic diplegia are very tight and stiff and must work very hard to successfully resist and "push through" the extra tightness they perpetually experience. Other than this, however, these individuals are almost always normal in every significant clinical sense. When they are younger, spastic diplegic individuals typically undergo gait analysis so that their clinicians can determine the best assistive devices for them, if any are necessary, such as a walker or crutches. The main difference between spastic diplegia and a normal gait pattern is its signature "scissor gait"Spastic diplegic gait on YouTube—a style that some able-bodied people might tend to confuse with the effects of drunkenness, multiple sclerosis, or another nerve disease.

Spastic triplegia, meanwhile, involves three limbs (such as one arm and two legs, or one leg and two arms, etc.); spastic diplegia affects two limbs (commonly just the legs), spastic hemiplegia affects one or another entire side of the body (left or right); and spastic monoplegia involves a single limb.

A new small theater in New York City created by Gregg Mozgala, a professional actor with spastic diplegia Cerebral Palsy, that focuses on "The Disabled Experience" and integrates able bodied actors with actors who have mental and physical disabilities. Their first larger production was "The Penalty" which was based on a film from the 1920s.

The first such marathon, entitled “Charitable Marathon -Courage to be First” was held on May 27, 2012, about 2500 people took part in the marathon, rather than the initially registered 500. The fund raised at the Marathon went to the treatment of Yesbol Miras (2 years old), a patient with cerebral palsy and spastic diplegia.

Spastic hemiplegia is a neuromuscular condition of spasticity that results in the muscles on one side of the body being in a constant state of contraction. It is the "one-sided version" of spastic diplegia. It falls under the mobility impairment umbrella of cerebral palsy. About 20–30% of people with cerebral palsy have spastic hemiplegia.

Kearney was born in Nottingham, England in 1997 and grew up in Aldridge. She was born with cerebral palsy (spastic diplegia) and developed generalised dystonia, a progressive neurological movement disorder, in her mid teens. These conditions primarily affect her lower limbs and also her left arm, shoulders and trunk control. Kearney was further diagnosed with Scoliosis in 2019.

Signs and symptoms of CBPS typically appear in infancy or at birth, but can appear later in childhood. These include facial diplegia (paralysis on both sides), facial muscle spasms, pseudobulbar palsy, dysarthria (difficulty speaking), difficulty chewing, dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), epilepsy, and intellectual disability. Epileptic seizures in individuals with CBPS are different between individuals and can vary between episodes.

It is found on chromosome Xq22.3-q23 and has nine exons that code for 360 proteins. DCX is expressed exclusively in the fetal brain. Spastic For details on the most common form of cerebral palsy, see spastic diplegia. Spastic cerebral palsy is by far the most common type, occurring in 70% to 80% of all cases.

Michael Jones was born in Poole on 10 June 1994 with spastic diplegia, a type of cerebral palsy that primarily affects his legs. Jones began swimming at age 10, was a member of the New Milton Seagulls swimming club, and attended Mount Kelly School on a swimming scholarship. He attended Ballard School in New Milton, Hampshire before studying at Loughborough University.

This sudden lack of oxygen is also almost always combined with premature birth, a phenomenon that, even by itself, would inherently risk the infant developing some type of CP. On the other hand, the presence of certain maternal infections during pregnancy such as congenital rubella syndrome can also lead to spastic diplegia, since such infections can have similar end results to infant hypoxia.

Other ocular defects including optic atrophy, microphthalmia, vitreitis, leukokoria and cataracts can also be seen. Most of the infants in one case series were of normal birth weight, although 30% were underweight. Aspiration pneumonia can be a fatal complication. Infants who survive may have severe neurological defects including epilepsy, impaired coordination, visual loss or blindness, spastic diplegia or quadriparesis/quadriplegia, delayed development and intellectual disability.

Rowan Crothers was born 15 weeks prematurely on 24 October 1997 in Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast. His prematurity resulted in him developing cerebral palsy and chronic lung disease. He has mild spastic diplegia and swims with the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Classifications S10, SB9, SM10. He is currently a member of Yeronga Park Swim Club and is trained by Rick Van Der Zant.

While splinting is not considered effective for decreasing spasticity, a range of different orthotics are effectively used for preventing muscle contractures on patients with spasticity. In the case of spastic diplegia there is also a permanent neurosurgical treatment for spasticity, selective dorsal rhizotomy, that directly targets nerves in the spine that cause the spasticity, and destroys them, so that the spasticity cannot be activated at all.

The English surgeon William John Little (18101894) was the first person to study CP extensively. In his doctoral thesis he stated that CP was a result of a problem around the time of birth. He later identified a difficult delivery, a preterm birth and perinatal asphyxia in particular as risk factors. The spastic diplegia form of CP came to be known as Little's disease.

Glycine encephalopathy can also present as a milder form with episodic seizures, ataxia, movement disorders, and gaze palsy during febrile illness. These patients are also developmentally delayed, to varying degrees. In the later onset form, patients typically have normal intellectual function, but present with spastic diplegia and optic atrophy. The mild form of the disorder corresponds to greatly reduced but not fully absent GCS activity.

Stratton was born in Auckland in 1999 with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. She grew up in Warkworth, Northland, New Zealand. In 2015 Stratton began writing a blog, and in 2017 she was nominated for the Young Leader award at the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards. In 2017 Stratton launched All is for All, an accessible fashion online shopping platform focused on the needs of disabled people.

These regional variants of ALS cannot be diagnosed at the onset of symptoms; a failure of the disease to spread to other spinal cord regions for an extended period of time (at least 12 months) must be observed. Flail arm syndrome, also called brachial amyotrophic diplegia, is characterized by lower motor neuron damage in the cervical spinal cord only, leading to gradual onset of weakness in the proximal arm muscles and decreased or absent reflexes. Flail leg syndrome, also called leg amyotrophic diplegia, is characterized by lower motor neuron damage in the lumbosacral spinal cord only, leading to gradual onset of weakness in the legs and decreased or absent reflexes. Isolated bulbar ALS is characterized by upper or lower motor neuron damage in the bulbar region only, leading to gradual onset of difficulty with speech (dysarthria) and swallowing (dysphagia); breathing (respiration) is generally preserved, at least initially.

The affected cells are the primary motor neurons; therefore, the disease is an upper motor neuron disease. HSP is not a form of cerebral palsy even though it physically may appear and behave much the same as spastic diplegia. The origin of HSP is different from cerebral palsy. Despite this, some of the same anti- spasticity medications used in spastic cerebral palsy are sometimes used to treat HSP symptoms.

It occurs in about 2.1 per 1,000 live births. Cerebral palsy has been documented throughout history, with the first known descriptions occurring in the work of Hippocrates in the 5th century BCE. Extensive study of the condition began in the 19th century by William John Little, after whom spastic diplegia was called "Little's disease". William Osler first named it "cerebral palsy" from the German zerebrale Kinderlähmung (cerebral child-paralysis).

The clinical characterizations of BPP "include pseudobulbar palsy with diplegia of the facial, pharyngeal and masticory muscles (facio-pharyngo-glosso-masticatory paresis), pyramidal signs, and seizures." These can result in drooling, feeding issues, restricted tongue movement, and dysarthria. Disorders in language development have also been associated with BPP, but the extent of language disorder depends on the severity of cortical damage. Patients who suffer from BPP can also have pyramidal signs that vary in severity, and can be either unilateral or bilateral.

They can include epilepsy, craniosynostosis (premature closing of the skull bones), spastic diplegia, cerebral hypotrophy, underdevelopment or agenesis of the corpus callosum, cerebellar hypoplasia, deafness, and, rarely, hydrocephalus, Dandy–Walker syndrome, and spina bifida. The eyes can be severely damaged and affected individuals may be blind. They may also have coloboma of the iris or choroid, strabismus, nystagmus, glaucoma, or cataracts. Other skeletal malformations are found with 13q deletion syndrome, including syndactyly, clubfoot, clinodactyly, and malformations of the vertebrae and/or thumbs.

Spastic cerebral palsy is the type of cerebral palsy characterized by spasticity or high muscle tone often resulting in stiff, jerky movements. Cases of spastic CP are further classified according to the part or parts of the body that are most affected. Such classifications include spastic diplegia, spastic hemiplegia, spastic quadriplegia, and in cases of single limb involvement, spastic monoplegia. Spastic cerebral palsy affects the motor cortex of the brain, a specific portion of the cerebral cortex responsible for the planning and completion of voluntary movement.

The girl was disabled with what was known then as cerebral diplegia. Kenny treated her on the Cregan's Station west of Guyra for three years and continued her association with her for many years. Her treatment of Daphne, plus nursing of sick and wounded men during World War I provided Kenny the experience for her later work rehabilitating polio victims.alexander 2012, 93-98 Instead of settling down at home as a spinster caring for her mother, Kenny continued to work as a nurse from their home.

Triplegia is a medical condition characterized by the paralysis of three limbs (Triplegia Muscle Anatomy) . A person with triplegia can be referred to as triplegic. While there is no typical pattern of involvement, it is usually associated with paralysis of both legs and one arm — but can also involve both arms and one leg. Triplegia can sometimes be considered a combination of hemiplegia (paralysis of arm and leg of one side of the body) overlaying diplegia (paralysis of both legs), or as quadriplegia (paralysis of four limbs) with less involvement in one extremity.

Pennington was diagnosed with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy at birth (a disease that affects the control, coordination and flexibility in the lower abdomen and leg muscles). She began skiing at the age of 6 with the Children's Hospital Handicapped Sports Program located in Denver, Colorado, and remained with the program until she graduated high school. She went on to attend university at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado on a pre-med track studying both Biology and Spanish. During her freshman year, she joined the university's ski racing team.

Spastic cerebral palsy is the type of cerebral palsy characterized by spasticity or high muscle tone often resulting in stiff, jerky movements. Itself an umbrella term encompassing spastic hemiplegia, spastic diplegia, spastic quadriplegia and — where solely one limb or one specific area of the body is affected— spastic monoplegia. Spastic cerebral palsy affects the motor cortex of the brain, a specific portion of the cerebral cortex responsible for the planning and completion of voluntary movement. Spastic CP is the most common type of overall cerebral palsy, representing about 80% of cases.

Another common but severe outcome of PVL patients is the development of epilepsy. The link between the two is not entirely clear; however, it appears that both genetic and early environmental factors are involved. One study estimated that 47% of children with PVL also have epilepsy, with 78% of those patients having a form of epilepsy not easily managed by medication. Many of these affected patients exhibit some seizures, as well as spastic diplegia or more severe forms of cerebral palsy, before a diagnosis of epilepsy is made.

If its effects are severely disabling, resulting in very little physical activity for the person, social elements can also suffer. Workplace environments can also be limited, since most labor-intensive work requires basic physical agility that spastic diplegics may not possess. However, the degree of variability among individuals with spastic diplegia means that no greater or lesser degree of stigma or real-world limitation is standard. Lesser effects usually mean fewer physical limitations, better-quality exercise, and more real-world flexibility, but the person is still in general seen as different from the norm.

In medicine, spastic refers to an alteration in muscle tone affected by the medical condition spasticity, which is seen in spastic diplegia and many other forms of cerebral palsy and also in terms such as "spastic colon". The word is derived via Latin from the Greek spastikos ("drawing in", "tugging" or "shaking uncontrollably"). Colloquially, spastic can be pejorative; though severity of this differs between the United States and the United Kingdom. Disabled people in the United Kingdom often consider "spastic" to be one of the most offensive terms related to disability.

Before this method was described, different interpretations of commonly used terms (e.g. diplegia, hemiplegia and quadriplegia) meant that data recorded in studies were not always able to be assessed correctly at an epidemiological level. The "Limb by Limb" method stimulated a debate among other researchersGoogle Scholar references to "A standard form for recording clinical findings in children with a motor deficit of central origin" about the best format for data recording in epidemiological studies, providing a basis from which other recording methodologies could be derived. Her work on the life expectancy of children affected by cerebral palsy has been used as evidence in the High Court.

Megan lets Jai see Eliza, but when she finds out Jai is in a relationship with Nell and that his niece, Amba Metcalfe (Ava Jayasinghe), got hold of some pills of Nell's, which turn out to be anti-depressants in May 2017, Megan threatens to prevent Jai seeing Eliza. Frank persuades Megan to let Jai see Eliza, despite being with Nell. In October 2017, Eliza suffers a seizure in the care of Jai's sister and Amba's mother, Priya Sharma (Fiona Wade), and Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi). At the hospital, Megan and Jai are told that Eliza has bilateral spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy.

Above the hips, persons with spastic diplegia typically retain normal or near-normal muscle tone and range of motion, though some lesser spasticity may also affect the upper body, such as the trunk and arms, depending on the severity of the condition in the individual (the spasticity condition affecting the whole body equally, rather than just the legs, is spastic quadriplegia, a slightly different classification). In addition, because leg tightness often leads to instability in ambulation, extra muscle tension usually develops in the shoulders, chest, and arms due to compensatory stabilisation movements, regardless of the fact that the upper body itself is not directly affected by the condition.

Kozhevnikov was a pioneer of Russian psychiatry, and was an advocate for humane treatment of the mentally insane. His name is lent to the eponymous "Kozhevnikov's epilepsy", also known as epilepsia continua, which is an epilepsy characterized by almost continuous, rhythmic muscular contractions that affect a limited portion of the body. He provided a comprehensive description of progressive familial spastic diplegia, and made contributions in the neuropathological study of nuclear ophthalmoplegia and asthenic bulbar paralysis. Among his students and assistants were Sergei Korsakoff (1853-1900), Grigory Ivanovich Rossolimo (1860-1928), Liverij Osipovich Darkshevich (1858-1925), Vladimir Karlovich Roth (1848-1916) and Lazar Salomonovich Minor (1855-1942).

Freney at the 2012 London Paralympics Jacqueline Rose Freney was born in Brisbane, Queensland with cerebral palsy diplegia. She won three bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Games in the women's 100m freestyle S8 event, 400m freestyle S8 event and 50m freestyle S8 event. In 2012 at the London Paralympic Games she won 8 gold medals in the women's 100m backstroke S7, women's 50m butterfly S7, 100m freestyle S7, 400m freestyle S7, 50m freestyle S7, 200m individual medley SM7, 4 × 100 m freestyle relay 34 pts, and the 4 x 100m medleyrelay event. She broke Siobhan Paton's Australian record of six gold medals at a single Games by winning her seventh gold medal in the Women's 400 m Freestyle S7.

Dorsal rhizotomy/selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR), less often referred to as selective posterior rhizotomy (SPR), is the most widely used form of rhizotomy, and is today a primary treatment for spastic diplegia, said to be best done in the youngest years before bone and joint deformities from the pull of spasticity take place, but it can be performed safely and effectively on adults as well. An incision is made in the lower back just above the buttocks and the nerves accessed and dealt with. SDR is a permanent procedure that addresses the spasticity at its neuromuscular root: i.e., in the central nervous system that contains the misfiring nerves that cause the spasticity of those certain muscles in the first place.

Halfon was born with a moderate version of spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, and underwent several major operations as a child, causing osteoarthritis in his early thirties. He was educated at Highgate School, an independent school in London, and the University of Exeter, where he graduated BA in politics and MA in Russian and Eastern European politics. With David Burrowes, Sajid Javid, and Tim Montgomerie, he was a leading member of Exeter University Conservative Association, turning Conservative Future from social to political activities. In the case of Halfon v United Kingdom (1991), he took the issue of compulsory membership of the National Union of Students to the European Court of Human Rights, which decided his application was manifestly ill-founded.

In the industrialized world, the incidence of overall cerebral palsy, which includes but is not limited to spastic diplegia, is about 2 per 1000 live births. Thus far, there is no known study recording the incidence of CP in the overall nonindustrialized world. Therefore, it is safe to assume that not all spastic CP individuals are known to science and medicine, especially in areas of the world where healthcare systems are less advanced. Many such individuals may simply live out their lives in their local communities without any medical or orthopedic oversight at all, or with extremely minimal such treatment, so that they are never able to be incorporated into any empirical data that orthopedic surgeons or neurosurgeons might seek to collect.

The National Team, in addition to friendly matches and invitational tournaments, competes in the following events: Intercontinental Cup, Copa America, World Championships, Parapan American Games, Paralympic Games. For players to be eligible, they must be ambulant (no requirement for assistive walking aids) and have one of the following neurological conditions, have had a Stroke, have Cerebral Palsy, have had a Traumatic Brain Injury / Acquired Brain Injury. Individuals with the above conditions may display varying degrees of the following impairments: Diplegia, Hemiplegia, Triplegia, Quadriplegia, Monoplegia, Dystonia, Athetosis, Ataxia, Balance issues, Co- ordination issues, Weakness in certain areas of the body. In many cases the above conditions may result in only minimal levels of motor dysfunction (some not noticeable to the untrained eye); however, under the rules of the sport, this could still make players eligible for the U.S. Paralympic National Team.

It is shocking to note that—as with people with physical disability overall—some may even find themselves in situations of institutionalization, and thus barely see the outside world at all. From what is known, the incidence of spastic diplegia is higher in males than in females; the Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE), for example, reports a M:F ratio of 1.33:1. Variances in reported rates of incidence across different geographical areas in industrialized countries are thought to be caused primarily by discrepancies in the criteria used for inclusion and exclusion. When such discrepancies are taken into account in comparing two or more registers of patients with cerebral palsy and also the extent to which children with mild cerebral palsy are included, the incidence rates still converge toward the average rate of 2:1000.

It is also variously claimed by clinicians that another advantage of doing the surgery so young is that it is inherently easier for these extremely young children to restrengthen their muscles and to re-learn how to walk, often having the effect that later in life, they do not even remember the period of time when they lived with the spasticity at all. However, recent cases of successful SDR procedures among those with spastic diplegia across all major age ranges (years 3-40 and even above) has finally proven its universal effectiveness and safety regardless of the age of the spastic diplegic patient. A counter-argument against the prevailing view concerning the younger years is that it may actually be quicker and easier to restrengthen an older patient's musculature and regaining of walking may happen faster with an older patient due to the fact that the patient is fully matured and very aware of what is going on, and so may work harder and with more focus than might a young child. These two schools of thought have equally objectively valid bases for their formation and thus are each defended quite intensely by their respective proponents.

Today, St. Louis Children's Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri has a "Center for Cerebral Palsy Spasticity" that is the only internationally known clinic in the world to have conducted concentrated first-hand clinical research on SDR over an extended period. Its chief neurosurgeon in the field, Doctor T.S. Park (who was initially trained by Dr. Peacock), has performed thousands of SDR surgeries, some of them on adults, and is the originator of the L1-laminectomy modification to the SDR surgery in 1991, which sections the first dorsal root and enables the removal of significantly less spine-bone than in surgeries performed before 1991, as well as inherent release of the hip flexor muscles specifically as a result of that particular sectioning — prior to that, total hip flexor release was not necessarily possible. That L1-laminectomy modification has since become the standard method, and SLCH has become internationally known as a major provider of the SDR surgery to those in need of it. It is this clinic's opinion that patients with spastic diplegia or quadriplegia should have spasticity reduced first through SDR before undergoing muscle release or tendon release procedures, and other surgeons today share this view.