Abstract
Developmental motor impairment with lower limb spasticity most commonly corresponds
to cerebral palsy of the spastic diplegia type. Here we describe a 4-year-old girl
whose locomotor phenotype reflects early cortico-spinal lesion at the spinal level.
This child has developmental spastic paraparesis secondary to D4–D8 cord compression.
We analysed her gait using the ELITE optoelectronic system and compared it to that
of six normal age-matched controls and six age-matched children with leucomalacic
spastic diplegia. Gait characteristics of the patient included preservation of head
orientation and arm swing similar to findings in normal controls and contrasting with
children with spastic diplegia. She also had truncal instability and displayed lack
of selectivity in lower limb movement as in spastic diplegia and in contrast with
normal controls. This may reflect differences in locomotor control between developmental
spasticity of cerebral and spinal origin. The latter might correspond to spinal palsy
defined as abnormal movement and posture secondary to non-progressive pathological
processes affecting the immature spinal cord.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 9,
2004
Received in revised form:
January 5,
2004
Received:
September 16,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
