Cerebral palsy a neurological disorder that affects muscle coordination. It is the palsy that seems to be most prominent in clinical gait literature.
What are the other known types of palsy? Do they affect human gait as well?
Hi,
Palsy implies paralysis; often the term connotes also partial paralysis or paresis. Some other examples of palsy are Bell's palsy (facial palsy), Erb's palsy (paralysis of the upper arm due to a lesion in the brachial plexus), lead palsy (paralysis of the wrist extensors due to lead poisoning), bulbar palsy (progressive bulbar paralysis), etc. The term 'palsy' is non-specific to the gait, but implies full or partial loss of power of voluntary movement in a muscle (group of muscles) due to an injury or disease of its nerve supply.
Hope this helps. Tatyana
Thank you very much, Dr. Tatiana. May I know what are the palsies that affect gait?
Hi Ebenezar,
For classification of disorders that affect human gain please refer to the following article:
Pradhan C, Wuehr M, Akrami F, Neuhaeusser M, Huth S, Brandt T, Jahn K, Schniepp R. Automated classification of neurological disorders of gait using spatio-temporal gait parameters. J Electromyogr Kinesiol. 2015 Apr;25(2):413-22.
Some other palsies that may affect gait: birth palsy (due to cerebral hemorrhage at birth, or hypoxia of the fetal brain in utero); creeping and wasting palsies (due to progressive muscular atrophy); night palsy (numbness), trembling palsy (in parkinsonism), and many more.
I think you may want to review which muscles (groups of muscles) are involved in human gait and their innervation pathways, and go from there.
Kind regards,Tatyana
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