spasticity


Small amounts of involuntary muscle activity limit passive joint range of motion

The loss of passive joint range of motion (i.e. contracture) is common in stroke and other neurological conditions. More than half of people with stroke or spinal cord injury will develop at least one contracture (Diong et al., 2012; Kwah et al., 2012). Contracture impairs physical function and can cause […]


Prof Rob Herbert selects his “Paper of the Year” for 2017

People who have had a stroke may develop disabling spasticity and contracture. In the upper limb, spasticity and contracture sometime manifest as a characteristic postural deformity: in standing, the relaxed arm is held with the shoulder adducted and internally rotated, the elbow flexed and pronated, and the wrist and fingers […]


Serotonin, Spasticity and Spinal Cord Injury (The Three S’s)

Immediately following a spinal cord injury (SCI) patients enter a state of areflexia and muscle weakness that is gradually replaced by the recovery of neuronal and network excitability leading to improvements in residual motor function over time as well as to the development of spasticity (i.e. involuntary muscle spasms). Spasticity […]