Q. What is the difference between hemiparesis and hemiplegia?

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Answered by Secondmedic Expert

Hemiparesis and hemiplegia are two similar neurologic conditions, but there are some key differences between them. Hemiparesis is a type of cerebral palsy that affects one side of the body, causing weak or uncoordinated movement in the arms and legs. It is caused by damage to either the brain or spinal cord due to an injury or stroke that affects only one side of the body. Symptoms range from mild weakness in an extremity to complete paralysis on one side of the body.

Hemiplegia is also caused by a traumatic brain injury or stroke that usually occurs before birth, but can occur at any age afterwards as well. Hemiplegia causes complete paralysis on one side of the body without any noticeable strength loss in affected limbs - muscles simply will not move at all when instructed by signals coming from other parts of your nervous system. Often times with hemiplegia, you may have difficulty controlling facial expressions on affected sides as well.

The main difference between hemiparesis and hemiplegia lies in their severity: whereas individuals with hemiparesis suffer from weakened movement on only one half-side (hemi-)of their bodies (-paresis), those suffering from hemipleagia experience total paralysis (pleg-) on same part (-hemi). Therefore, for those with even minor symptoms resulting from a lost motor ability it's important to do get assessed immediately so as to determine whether this condition has occurred because of underlying medical cause such as a stroke or if it's merely muscular atrophy due to aging .