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3. PHYSICAL DISABILITY CLASSIFICATION More traditionally, physical disability can be described as long-term or permanent disorder of the motor system or other body organs, which results in an impairment of movement. This includes wide range of orthopedic, motor, neuromuscular, cerebral movement disorders. Among the illnesses that often result in physical disability aremultiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. Lets now look at the most common conditions: Cerebral palsy is the widest group of physical disabilities. Cerebral palsy is mostly caused by pre, peri or post-natal conditions or by brain injuries, infections and degenerative diseases. Different forms of cerebral palsy exist, based on the part of the brain that is damaged. We will look at this condition more closely in one of the following sessions of this chapter. Spinal cord palsy is another common condition. It can be caused by many illnesses, but nowadays the most common cause is spinal cord injury due to car accidents and traumas inflicted in so called adrenalin sports. The health status and motor abilities depends on the level of the spinal cord damage and also on the location of the damage. The closer to cervical spinal cord the more serious is the health status of the injured person. While permanent damage to lumbar or sacral part of spinal cord will cause paraparesis or paraplegia of the lower limbs and damage the sensitivity in lower limbs, the damage of the top part of cervical spinal cord (segment C1-C4) will most likely lead to tetraparesis or tetraplegia (also known as quadriparesis or quadriplegia) affecting the whole body. Spina bifida is a congenital abnormality â with or without damage to the spinal cord or spinal canal. This condition is caused by abnormal closure of the vertebral canal. Neurosurgery is performed at very early age of the patients. In case of more severe types of spina bifida, it results typically in paresis or plegia of the lower limbs and palsy of constrictor muscles. Current prevalence of spina bifida is lower due to fetal screening. . Poliomyelitis is a viral illness associated with muscular palsy. This disease is caused by virus, which attacks the spinal cord of children between the age 2 and 10. Vaccination has been used in most parts of the world (in the Czech Republic since 1958). Muscular dystrophy is a progressive illness associated with loss of muscular tissue and decrease of muscular strength. It has a genetic background. The motor abilities of a person gradually deteriorate over time. The process can be slowed down by medication and exercise, but some forms of Muscular dystrophy will eventually affect even the vital functions of lung and heart muscles. Osteognosis imperfecta is another congenital abnormality, which leads to fractures of bones.. Postural defects are acquired deformations of body posture. The most known are scoliosis and kyphosis. These defects of body postures are associated with abnormal vertebral curvatures. The causes of the defect can be internal â physiological (fast growth, hereditary, nutrition, constitution) and external (environment, lack of movement, premature sitting in infants, long-time sitting, sport specialisations, sleeping on soft bed). Chronic deceases can also affect physical functioning and movement of a person. The most common are Rheumatic disorders affecting joins and connective tissue, which is associated with chronic pain of the skeletal system, heart diseases, respiratory deceases, circulation system diseases,etc. |