Hemiplegia paralysis of one side or half of the body

Hemiplegia paralysis of one side or half of the body

Hemiplegia paralysis of one side or half of the body

Hemiplegia (paralysis of one side or half of the body). Hemiplegia is frequently the result of a tumor in the lateral ventricles of the brain, softening of one hemisphere of the cerebrum, pressure from extravasated blood, fracture of the cranium, or it may be due to poisons in the blood or to reflex origin. When hemiplegia is due to or the result of a prior disease of the brain, especially of an inflammatory character, it is seldom complete; it may affect only one limb and one side of the head, neck, or muscles along the back, and may pass off in a few days after the disappearance of all the other evidences of the primary affection. In most cases, however, hemiplegia arises from emboli obstructing one or more blood vessels of the brain, or the rupture of some vessel the wall of which had become weakened by degeneration and the extravasation of blood. Sensibility in most cases is not impaired, but in some there is a loss of sensibility as well as of motion. In some cases the bladder and rectum are involved in the paralysis.