palsy

(noun)

Complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking.

Related Terms

Examples of palsy in the following topics:

  • Bell's Palsy

    • The forehead can therefore still be wrinkled by a patient whose facial palsy is caused by a problem in one of the hemispheres of the brain (central facial palsy).
    • Patients with facial palsy for which an underlying cause can be found are not considered to have Bell's palsy per se.
    • Babies can be born with facial palsy.
    • Bell's palsy affects each individual differently.
    • Describe the condition of Bell's palsy and its effects on the face

  • Facial (VII) Nerve

    • In an upper motor neuron lesion, called central seven (central facial palsy), only the lower part of the face on the contralateral side will be affected due to the bilateral control to the upper facial muscles (frontalis and orbicularis oculi).
    • Lower motor neuron lesions can result in a cranial nerve VII palsy (Bell's palsy is the idiopathic form of facial nerve palsy), manifested as both upper and lower facial weakness on the same side of the lesion.
    • A person attempting to show his teeth and raise his eyebrows with Bell's palsy on his right side (left side of the image).

  • Dental Anesthesia

    • The result is a temporary facial palsy (paralysis), with the injected side of the face drooping because of flaccid muscles, which disappears when the anesthesia wears off.
    • If the facial nerve is cut by an improperly inserted needle, permanent facial palsy can occur.

  • Hypotonia and Hypertonia

    • Spastic hypertonia is the general condition of muscle spasms caused by random contractions of the muscles, and is typical in cerebral palsy and spinal cord injuries; it can also occur from stroke.

  • Accessory (XI) Nerve

    • Patients with spinal accessory nerve palsy may exhibit signs of lower motor neuron disease such as atrophy and fasciculations of both the sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles.

  • Trochlear (IV) Nerve

    • To compensate for this, patients with trochlear nerve palsies tilt their heads to the opposite side, in order to fuse the two images into a single visual field.

  • Hypoglossal (XII) Nerve

    • Progressive bulbar palsy is a neuromuscular atrophy associated with combined lesions of the hypoglossal nucleus and nucleus ambiguous upon atrophy of motor nerves of the pons and medulla.

  • Horner's Syndrome

    • Horner's syndrome, also known as oculosympathetic palsy, is a combination of drooping of the eyelid (ptosis) and constriction of the pupil (miosis) on one side of the face, accompanied by decreased sweating of the face on the same side .

  • Injuries to Nerves Emerging from the Brachial Plexus

    • Most commonly, forceps delivery or falling on the neck at an angle causes upper plexus lesions leading to Erb's palsy.

  • Premature Infants

    • Neurological problems include apnea of prematurity, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), developmental disability, transient hyperammonemia of the newborn, cerebral palsy, and intraventricular hemorrhage.