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What Causes Facial Nerve Palsy?
Discussion Facial nerve palsy has been known for centuries, but in 1821 unilateral facial nerve paralysis was described by Sir Charles Bell. Bell’s palsy (BP) is a unilateral, acute facial paralysis that is clinically diagnosed after other etiologies have been excluded by appropriate history, physical examination and/or laboratory testing or imaging. Symptoms include abnormal movement of facial nerve. It can be associated with changes in facial sensation, hearing, taste or excessive tearing. The right and left sides are equally affected but bilateral BP is rare (0.3%). Paralysis can be complete or incomplete at prese...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - June 3, 2019 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Causes Muscle Weakness?
Discussion Muscle tone is the slight tension that is felt in a muscle when it is voluntarily relaxed. It can be assessed by asking the patient to relax and then taking the muscles through a range of motion such as moving the wrists, forearm and upper arm. Muscle strength is the muscle’s force against active resistance. Impaired strength is called weakness or paresis. There are 5 levels of muscle strength. 0 = No muscle contraction detected 1 = Barely detected flicker of contraction 2 = Active movement with gravity eliminated 3 = Active movement against gravity 4 = Active movement against gravity and some resistance ...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - December 9, 2013 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Causes Ataxia?
Discussion Coordination and balance problems are caused by various problems affecting the central and peripheral nervous system. Normal development of a child or weakness of a child are commonly mistaken for true ataxia. Ataxia specifically refers to “…impairment of the coordination of movement without loss of muscle strength.” If it is purely due to abnormalities of the cerebellum then there should be no changes in mental status, sensation or weakness. Sometimes it is difficult to determine if there are abnormalities in other areas. For example, Guillian-Barre often presents with difficulty or clumsy wal...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - March 31, 2014 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Causes Microcephaly?
Discussion Microcephaly is usually defined as an occipitofrontal head circumference (OFC) more than 2 standard deviations (SD) below the mean for sex, age and ethnicity. Severe microcephaly is used for OFC < 3 standard deviations. Rates of microcephaly range from 0.5-12 patients/10,000 live births. The OFC should be measured at every well child visit and at other opportunities and plotted on standard growth charts. The OFC is measured using a nonelastic tape measure around the largest part of the head with the tape measure held above the eyebrows and ears. It is a highly reproducible measurement. There are several diff...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - September 25, 2017 Category: Pediatrics Authors: pediatriceducationmin Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news

What Are Some Risk Factors for Cerebral Palsy?
Discussion The term, cerebral palsy, or CP has gone through many iterations with the first description in 1861 by W.J. Little who described it as “The condition of spastic rigidity of the limbs of newborn children.” The most recent definition is from Rosenbaun et al. in 2007 which states it is “a group of permanent disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation, that are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. The motor disorders of cerebral palsy are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, perception, cog...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - March 9, 2020 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news