Disturbances of Sensation in Children With Hemiplegia

Major attention has properly been directed at the motor handicap in hemiplegia, but the frequent coexistence of mental defect and convulsions is also well known. The possibilities of significant sensory impairment and of visual defects, however, while well known as a feature of cerebral vascular accidents among adults, have received scant attention in connection with the long-term management of hemiplegia in childhood and young adult life. The standard pediatric, orthopedic, and neurological textbooks largely ignore the subject, which has received only infrequent and relatively recent mention in medical periodicals. Bender 1 mentions its frequency among adult hemiplegics, especially if tested by the extinction method, and a brief preliminary report of our study has already been presented. 2 Detailed testing of sensation and visual fields of hemiplegic children presents technical difficulties, which have doubtless in part accounted for inattention to such features in the past. The difficulties are not insurmountable, however,