A healthy child can bring countless happiness to a family, while a sick child can ruin the happiness of a family. But there are still many diseases that can occur in children in life. For example, spinal muscular atrophy. If a child suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, it not only brings physical, mental, and economic burden to parents, but also affects the child's future entry into society. Do infants with spinal muscular atrophy experience pain?
Does spinal muscular atrophy cause pain in infants
Spinal muscular atrophy can occur in infancy or childhood. Its characteristic is skeletal muscle atrophy caused by progressive degeneration of spinal cord anterior horn cells and brainstem motor nuclei. Symptoms already exist in the fetus or appear 2-4 months after birth. Most sick infants exhibit low muscle tone at birth; Before the age of 6 months, all affected infants showed significant delays in motor function development. Babies do not have obvious pain, but their body movements are not coordinated, which is different from normal babies.
The etiology and treatment methods of spinal muscular atrophy
Autosomal recessive inheritance is caused by homozygous deletion of exon 7 of the SMN gene. According to the age of onset and severity of muscle weakness, clinical classification includes SMA-I, SMA-II, and SMA-III types, namely infantile type, intermediate type, and juvenile type. The common feature is degeneration of spinal cord anterior horn cells, clinically manifested as progressive, symmetrical, and widespread flaccid paralysis and muscle atrophy mainly in the proximal limbs.
Both intellectual development and sensation are normal. The differences between different types depend on the age of onset, the speed of disease progression, the degree of muscle weakness, and the length of survival time. So far, there is no specific effective treatment for this disease. The main treatment measures are to prevent or treat various complications caused by severe muscle weakness, such as pneumonia, malnutrition, skeletal deformities, mobility disorders, and psychosocial problems.
Now it is known that spinal muscular atrophy is related to congenital chromosomal defects. In China, it is required to undergo premarital examinations before marriage and before preparing for pregnancy, in order to avoid tragedy. Both children and adults suffer from spinal muscular atrophy. It is so sad to see helpless parents helpless, but parents cannot give up after all, it is a life.
