Cerebral Palsy Surgery

A cerebral palsy surgery in Longmont, Colorado was performed last October on a young girl whose dream it was to walk like the other children she went to school with. Some of 13-year-old Anya Mack's middle school classmates had mimicked her, called her names and asked if she was retarded. Tough things for a middle-school student to hear, no doubt.

Mack's dream was to be able to walk into high school like her classmates -- with flat feet and smooth movements instead of on her toes with her swaying body struggling to keep balance, one of the effects of living with cerebral palsy. And almost seven months since having the cerebral palsy surgery, Mack's dream is going to be fulfilled. She's walking with her feet flat, her legs straight, but she's doing so slowly to regain her strength and get the most out of her physical therapy.

The cerebral palsy surgery performed on Mack involved breaking both of her legs and cutting her tendons. Sounds painful, but the brave young girl was determined to walk.

Children with cerebral palsy often suffer from much more than just difficulty walking, and their families suffer with them. Parents of children with cerebral palsy hope that their child's condition will get better just as Anya Mack did, as they can see the impact of cerebral palsy on children is tremendous. Blindness, difficulty speaking and problems concentrating are just a few of the many problems children with cerebral palsy must deal with.

The cerebral palsy surgery performed on the young girl was innovative and effective, but currently there is no standard cerebral palsy treatment that patients undergo. This is because each person with cerebral palsy reacts differently and is affected in different ways. Still, some of the most effective treatments used so far include Botox injections, the Baclofen pump and selective dorsal rhizotomy, a surgery.

Cerebral palsy is the term used to describe a group of disorders that affect muscle control. Often, cerebral palsy is caused when specific areas of the brain are damaged, usually during infancy or fetal development. Though there is currently no cure for cerebral palsy, innovative treatments like the surgery performed on Anya Mack are being developed by experts every day.