Muscle tone is the amount of tension in the muscles, key to the proper functioning of the body. In this article, we’ll define the terms muscle tone, hypotonia, and hypertonia, and explain how they relate to birth injury law.
Key Takeaways
- Muscle tone is the muscle’s resistance to passive stretch
- Hypotonia is poor muscle tone
- Symptoms of hypotonia include poor posture, poor head control, and delay in motor skills
- Causes of hypotonia include cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, brain damage, and more
- Hypertonia is too much muscle tone
- There are two types of hypertonia: spastic and dystonic
- Symptoms of hypertonia include limited joint movement, poor range of motion, frequent falling, and more
- Causes of hypertonia include stroke, brain tumor, cerebral palsy, and more
- When a healthcare provider’s negligence during childbirth leads to hypotonia or hypertonia, it may be considered medical malpractice
What Is Muscle Tone?
In medicine, muscle tone refers to the continuous and passive partial contraction of the muscles or the muscle’s resistance to passive stretch during a resting state. Muscle tone helps to maintain the body’s posture, control reflexes, and regulate the function of organs.
What Is Hypotonia?
Poor muscle tone is called hypotonia or floppy muscle syndrome and it can be detected at birth or during infancy. Infants with hypotonia may appear limp at birth and not be able to keep their knees or elbows bent.
Signs and symptoms of hypotonia include:
- Speech difficulties
- Poor reflexes
- Decrease in strength
- Impaired posture
- Delay in fine motor skills development such as grasping
- Poor or no head control
- Delay in gross motor skills development such as crawling
- Decrease in muscle tone
- Decrease in activity endurance
- Hyper flexibility
Causes of hypotonia include:
- Cerebral palsy
- Trisomy 13
- Prader-Willi syndrome
- Down syndrome
- Muscular dystrophy
- Tay-Sachs disease
- Brain damage
What Is Hypertonia?
Too much muscle tone is called hypertonia. Infants with hypertonia have stiff muscles and difficulty moving. Children with hypertonia have poor balance, difficulty walking and grabbing, and may struggle to eat.
There are two types of hypertonia:
- Spastic hypertonia - Exaggerated reflexes and muscle spasms that increase with movement
- Dystonic hypertonia - Muscle stiffness that doesn’t change with movement
Signs and symptoms of hypertonia include:
- Limited joint movement
- Very little flexibility
- Involuntary muscle twitching or jerking
- Throbbing pain or soreness in muscles
- Difficulty moving the arms, legs, or neck
- Loss of balance
- Frequent falls
- Decreased range of motion
Causes of hypertonia include:
- Stroke
- Injury to the central nervous system
- Conditions that affect how nerves communicate with muscles
- Problems with fetal brain development
- Brain tumor
- Cerebral palsy
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson’s disease
Muscle Tone and Birth Injury Law
Problems with infant muscle tone have many causes, including injury during childbirth. A lack of oxygen to the brain during or immediately after delivery can lead to both hypotonia and hypertonia. There are many mistakes that doctors and healthcare providers can make that might cut off a fetus’s oxygen supply, including:
- Continuing a difficult, prolonged labor without using assisted delivery tools or performing a cesarean section
- Not noticing signs of fetal distress
- Not properly diagnosing or responding to issues with the placenta or umbilical cord
- Not properly diagnosing or responding to infection
- Mishandling preeclampsia
When a doctor’s negligence leads to birth injury, it is considered medical malpractice.
If your child developed hypotonia or hypertonia as a result of a healthcare professional’s mistake, you may be eligible for compensation for your pain and suffering. It is recommended that you speak to an experienced birth injury lawyer to consult about your options.
