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When half of the body does not work as a result of this sort of injury to the brain, this is referred to as Hemiplegia. Hemi being half. Plegia being inability to move. So half of the body has a decreased ability to move the way it should have normally because of the opposite side of the brain is no longer providing those functions.
When half of the body does not work as a result of this sort of injury to the brain, this is referred to as Hemiplegia. Hemi being half. Plegia being inability to move. So half of the body has a decreased ability to move the way it should have normally because of the opposite side of the brain is no longer providing those functions.
A stroke results in an injury to the brain, either from loss of blood flow to a portion of the brain or from bleeding into the brain itself destroying tissue as a result. So our brains control the body through nerve pathways that pass usually from the opposite side of the brain to the opposite side of the body. So the left side of my brain controls the right side of my body. The right side of my brain controls the left side of my body. So when a patient has a stroke, an artery gets blocked, we lose blood flow to a portion of the brain. There's an area of brain that dies. If that area of brain includes the motor pathways, that control movement in the body, the opposite side of the body will lose significant function. Sometimes strokes can be a small area where there's just a little bit of increased tone and dysfunction of the movements of the hand or causing walking to be a little less smooth. And sometimes stress can be a very large area of brain resulting in complete loss of function in the opposite side of the body. Where the hand and arm are entirely useless and the patient is limited to living in a wheelchair and not able to walk.
The field of stroke care has advanced dramatically over the last decade. The amount of options for care, the ability to remove a clot, restore blood flow, the type of rehabilitation that's available to patients after a stroke. But even with all of these advances, we have enormous number of patients across the United States and around the world who are left with a degree of Hemiplegia. Hemiplegia is the result of a stroke or brain injury that causes the opposite side of the body to lose function, to develop hypertonicity or spasticity causing the muscles to be tight, the arm to drop and the fist to clench, the foot and ankle to turn in, impairing a patient's ability to walk or use their hand for such basic functions as even feeding themselves or writing on paper. Once a patient has done everything that they can do to recover this with physical therapy, with medications to reduce the spasticity, with bracing, they often are left with a sub optimal function of both limbs on that side of the body. And what seems to be not common knowledge is that there are a number of surgical procedures that are available to improve that function.
Unfortunately, there's little awareness of the procedures available to patients who've suffered a stroke. Typically, after a patient has undergone rehabilitation for a year, they're determined to have achieved the ultimate function that they can achieve. Because of this, most patients are not receiving the surgical care that would help improve their quality of life. It is realistic that in most cases of hemiplegia surgical procedures can increase their functionality substantially. Improving walking, improving independence, improving the use of the hand and leg. The ultimate effect of these procedures is to ease the patient's day to day life, self care, and ability to get about. Walking should be improved. The ability to use the hands, the ability to take care of yourself, feed yourself, and accomplish tasks of daily living should be eased. Sometimes it requires stepwise procedures, beginning with the leg moving to the arm and back and forth until we achieve the function that we're after. Typically, a patient should be under the care of a reconstructive surgeon for up to three years from the initiation of these procedures until we achieve the ultimate desired result.
The reconstructive procedures involved in restoring function after a stroke or Hemiplegia are typically covered by insurance, but it will be important for you to check with your particular insurance carrier to be sure that you are a candidate for these.
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