An overview of the clinical management of spasticity

Abstract

This introduction provides an overview of spasticity management. Spasticity can cause problems with activity and participation in people with a variety of neurological disorders. It is only one of the many different features of the upper motor neurone (UMN) syndrome. The clinical features of the UMN syndrome can be divided into two broad groups such as negative phenomena and positive phenomena. A characteristic feature of spasticity is that the hypertonia is dependent upon the velocity of the muscle stretch, in other words, greater resistance is felt with faster stretches. Thus, spasticity resists muscle stretch and lengthening. Severe muscle spasms are often found in UMN syndrome. These can be in either a flexor pattern or an extensor pattern. The description of the different patterns of the UMN syndrome makes it clear that there is a potentially wide range of functional problems.