What's is spastic parapherisis?

Question

It is a disease.

Answer 1

Spastic paraparesis is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Some general symptoms of Spastic paraparesis include:
*Leg weakness
*Difficulty walking
*Arm weakness (one or both arms)
*Shortening of legs due to muscle spasticity
*Clumsiness of hands

There are two types of spastic paraparesis that I could find listed.
*Tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP), an incurable viral infection of the spinal cord that causes weakness in the legs. It is caused by the human T-cell lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-1) retrovirus.
*Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), also called familial spastic paraparesis (FSP), refers to a group of inherited disorders that are characterized by progressive weakness and stiffness and slow progressive spasticity (sustained muscle contractions or sudden movements) of the legs. It appears in adulthood.

Signs and symptoms of Spastic paraparesis may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they are indeed Spastic paraparesis symptoms.

See below for more info on the types of spastic paraparesis.

Answer 2

"Paraparesis" is partial paralysis on one side of the body due to brain injury of some type (head injury, stroke, or birth injury). "Spastic" means it results in spasms or uncontrolled tensing of the muscles. The brain lesion is located high in the motor cortex in the brain.