Hemiatrophy

From Neurosigns
Jump to: navigation, search
Figure 1. Right hemiatrophy due to traumatic brain injury in childhood
Figure 2. Same patient
Except for mild, late atrophy of the involved part due to disuse, upper motor neuron lesions do not cause the sort of severe muscle atrophy seen in lower motor neuron lesions. But with lesions that are congenital or occur early in life, the involved limbs may fail to grow normally, resulting in hemiatrophy to varying degrees in adulthood.(1)

This patient fell and hit his head on a table at age 3. There was a faint left craniotomy scar, indicating a major intracranial injury that was managed surgically. He was left with refractory seizures and a spastic right hemiplegia with hemiatrophy.(Figures 1 and 2) Hemiatrophy may also complicate hemiparkinsonism.(2,3) Rarely, hemiatrophy is idiopathic.

References

1. Campbell WW. DeJong's the neurologic examination, 7th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2013. 2. Ayromlou H, Najmi S, Arami MA. Hemiparkinsonism-hemiatrophy syndrome. Arch Iran Med. 2011 Mar;14(2):152-4. 3. Giladi N, Burke RE, Kostic V, Przedborski S, Gordon M, Hunt A, Fahn S. Hemiparkinsonism-hemiatrophy syndrome: clinical and neuroradiologic features. Neurology. 1990 Nov;40(11):1731-4.