Cerebral Palsy (Part 2) Flashcards
What are 5 ways to distinguish an infant with CP from an uninvolved infant at 4 months of age?
- neck hyperextension
- shoulder retraction
- ability to bear weight on the forearms while prone
- ability to maintain a stable head position in supported or independent sitting
- flex the hips actively against gravity
What are the 3 purposes of the assessment?
- discover the functional abilities and strengths of the child
- determine the primary and secondary impairments
- discover the desired functional and participation outcomes of the child and family
What are 9 positions you should assess a child’s functional antigravity control?
- supine
- prone
- side-lying
- sitting (shirt, long, side, ring)
- quadruped
- kneeling
- half-kneeling
- standing
- walking
What are 5 things to assess in a child who functions from a wheelchair?
- Alignment and mobility of body
- Shifting of weight
- Propulsion of the wheelchair
- Management of the wheelchair and its parts
- Transfers
What is the most important thing to assess in a wheelchair bound child?
ALIGNMENT
- check for contractures, scoliotic deformation, pressure ulcers, etc.
Historically, posture was defined through reflex terminology and facilitated through what?
controlled sensory feedback
What role does sensory feedback have on postural control?
The child received feedback from having completed the task previously and makes the necessary postural adjustments to complete the task in the most efficient way
Describe postural setting
Muscles become active around a joint or joints, without obvious movement, in anticipation of a task
How is postural control through feedforward learning learned?
through trial and error
What are 3 questions to ask yourself when assessing a child’s posture?
- Does the child have a variety of ways to transition between postures or only stereotypical choices?
- Does the child actively push into the supporting surface with the pelvis or extremities
- Can the child repeat movements or tasks and make small changes in motor performance?
What does the clinical term “tone” describe?
the impairments of spasticity and hypo/hyper extensibility of muscles
What are 4 signs of increased tone?
- distal fixing (toe-curling or fisting)
- difficulty moving a body segment through a range
- asymmetric posture
- retracted lips and tongue
What are 3 signs of decreased tone?
- excessive collapse of body segments
- loss of postural alignment
- inability to sustain a posture against gravity
What are 2 forms of CP that exhibit fluctuating levels of stiffness?
- athetosis
- ataxia
What 10 things should be included in the musculoskeletal assessment of children with CP?
- ROM
- spine evaluation
- thoracic movement
- eval of the shoulder girdle and UE
- exam of the hip and pelvis
- femoral anteversion
- knee exam
- tibial torsion
- foot examination
- leg length discrepancy
When performing ROM measurements you should perform the limb slowly through the range to avoid eliciting a stretch reflex.
The first “catch” is considered what?
What is the second “catch”?
functional range: the range that the child can access for function
absolute range: the actual length of the muscle
What is the goal of stretching?
To bring the functional and absolute range numbers as close to each other as possible
Describe the process of assessing spinal flexion
Place the child in supine and round the spine putting the child’s knees up to their chest
What is considered abnormal spinal flexion?
When there is a flattened area (without SP chowing or showing less) this is considered reduced spinal flexion
What position are spinal extension, lateral flexion, and rotation most easily assessed in?
sitting
What muscle groups in the spine do children with CP typically have limitations in?
spinal and capital extensors
Describe rib position in a typically developing baby under 6 months. What happens to this position as the child develops upright posture?
There is an approximate 90 degree angle between the ribs and spine.
There is a PA downward slant to the ribs
What 2 things does the PA downward slant of the ribs allow for?
1) an increased ability to expand the diameter of the thorax in both an AP (pump-handle) and lateral (bucket-handle) direction
2) the thoracic (external intercostals) and abdominal (obliques) muscles to fix the ribcage
Because the downward slant of the ribs nerve fully develops in children with CP what is the result?
1) The mechanical advantage of the pump-handle and bucket-handle motions of inspiration are minimized
CP children do not have the muscle tone to necessary to stabilize the rib cage which results in what?
Sternal fibers cause depression of the xyphoid process and the sternum during inspiration
What does the combination of reduced thoracic expansion and sternal depression result in?
Shallow respiratory efforts which will result in vocalizations that will be of short duration and will be low in intensity
What trunk muscles are the most important to train and why?
the obliques because they aid in forceful expiration needed for coughing and sneezing
Why do children with CP demonstrates tightness and limitation of the shoulder girdle, most notably pec major?
they never attain adequate UE weight bearing in prone
What shoulder motions are the most restricted in a child with CP?
- flexion
- abduction
- ER
What are 4 other UE limitations observed in the child with CP?
- elbow extension
- forearm supination
- wrist extension
- finger extension
What position should hip adduction and abduction be measured in?
in supine with the hip and knee extended
What position should hip IR/ER be measured in?
in prone with hip extended and knee flexed
Because children with CP have very tight hip flexion, adduction, and internal rotation they are at risk for what?
hip dislocation/subluxation
In what direction do subluxations tend to occur? What does this lead to?
superior and posterior
A leg length discrepancy in which the involved side leg appears shorter than the uninvolved side
What is the most important measurement for a PT to consistently track?
hip abduction with knee and hip extension
If any child under the age of 8 has less than __ degrees of hip abduction they should be referred to an orthopedic surgeon
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