Stem Cell Therapy for Hemiplegia in South Africa

Congenital hemiplegia does not have any known causes. The disorder is noticed when the child starts developing movement problems. However, some of the presumed causes may include:

• Premature babies
• Injury due to difficulties during birth
• Multiple pregnancies

• strokes that cause blood clot or bleeding in the brain
• brain infections
• Reactions to anesthesia during surgery
• Loss of oxygen to the brain due to choking or anaphylactic shock.
• Brain cancers
• Lesions in the brain

Its effects are diverse depending on each child. The symptoms include:

• using one hand during play or favoring one hand before the age of 3 years
• difficulties during walking and balance
• delays in attaining the expected child developments such as smiling, rolling over, crawling, and sitting up
• holding one hand in a fist
• stiffness and general body weakness in muscles on one side of the body
• difficulties with simple tasks such as writing

The disorder is not curable but there are available control measures which include therapy and regular sessions with neurologists, neurosurgeons and orthopedic

The type of therapy involved includes physiotherapy, speech and occupation therapy. The main goals of the therapy session are as follows:

• Evaluate the posture of the child
• Help the child perform daily activities.
• Stretching of muscles to prevent unusual muscle development
• Training parents on how to handle the children

There are many problems that are associated with this disorder and include:

• Executive functionality – hemiplegia also poses the problem of failing to plan and organize ones’ behavior. Additionally, there will be problems of accomplishing tasks and evaluation of past mistakes.
• Speech and language – the cause of the damage and age of the child may lead to speech impairment. The speech may be affected partially leading to low speech or fatal leading to total speech loss. The speech problems improve gradually. Children who suffer a stroke at birth may delay in talking and may catch up with their peers at a later age of about 3 years.
• Responsiveness and Concentration – children with this condition have difficulty in maintaining concentration for a long time. They are unable to function properly in places with high noises and stimulation. There is also the problem of shifting from one conversation point to the other
• Social Communication – The ability to participate in a conversation with others requires the use of cognitive, linguistic, and social skills, all of which can be affected by an early brain injury. The child may have difficulty following shifting topics, interpretation of social cues, organization of ideas, and application of rules of social behavior.
• Behavior -May experience agitation, irritability, mood swings, hyperactivity, apathy and emotional and behavioral outbursts as a result of the brain injury. The psychosocial problems can be extremely complex.
• Sensory effects – Difficulties insight or coordination of eyes. This may be as a result of partial or total damage of the brain’s visual area. If the damage is critical, it may also impair hearing.
• Memory lapse- the disorder portrays problems of storing and retrieval of information from the brain
• Seizures and epilepsy– these may develop immediately after an injury or later in life. The conditions can be rectified by use of prescribed medication.