Nervous diseases are diseases that develop as a result of damage to the brain and spinal cord, as well as peripheral nerve trunks and ganglia. Nervous diseases are the subject of study of a specialized field of medical knowledge – neurology. Since the nervous system is a complex apparatus that connects and regulates all organs and systems of the body, neurology closely interacts with other clinical disciplines such as cardiology, gastroenterology, gynecology, ophthalmology, endocrinology, orthopedics, traumatology, speech therapy, etc. The main specialist in the field of nervous diseases is a neurologist.
ND can be genetically determined (Rossolimo-Steinert-Kurschmann myotonia, Friedreich’s ataxia, Wilson’s disease, Pierre-Marie ataxia) or acquired. Congenital malformations of the nervous system (microcephaly, basilar impression, Kimberly anomaly, Chiari anomaly, platybasia, congenital hydrocephalus), in addition to hereditary factors, can lead to unfavorable conditions of intrauterine development of the fetus: hypoxia, radiation, infection (measles, rubella, syphilis, chlamydia, cytomegaly, HIV), toxic effects, the threat of spontaneous termination of pregnancy, eclampsia, Rh conflict, etc. Infectious or traumatic factors affecting the nervous system immediately after the birth of a child (purulent meningitis, asphyxia of a newborn, birth trauma, hemolytic disease) often lead to the development of such nervous diseases as cerebral palsy, childhood epilepsy, oligophrenia.

Acquired ND are often associated with infectious lesions of various parts of the nervous system. As a result of infection, meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, brain abscess, arachnoiditis, multiple encephalomyelitis, ganglioneuritis and other diseases develop. A separate group consists of traumatic etiology: TBI, spinal cord injury, traumatic neuritis. ND that occur in old age are mainly caused by vascular changes (dyscirculatory encephalopathy, TIA, ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke), less often by metabolic disorders (Parkinson’s disease). The incidence of oncological nervous diseases remains high. The limited space inside the skull or spinal canal leads to the fact that even benign tumors of this localization (astrocytoma, craniopharyngioma, ganglioneuroma) have a malignant course. In addition, the problematic nature of complete removal of CNS tumors causes their frequent recurrence.

Clinical manifestations directly depend on which part of the nervous system was involved in the pathological process. Thus, nervous diseases with brain damage can be accompanied by headache, dizziness, gait and coordination disorders, speech disorders, hearing and vision loss, paresis and paralysis of a central nature, changes in the psyche. Nervous diseases associated with spinal cord pathology are manifested by motor and sensory disorders below the lesion level. Diseases of the peripheral nervous system (trigeminal neuralgia, facial neuritis, intercostal neuralgia, cervical plexitis, polyneuropathies, radial nerve neuropathy, femoral nerve neuropathy, etc.) are characterized by pain syndrome, sensitivity disorders, muscular atrophy, motor disorders, vegetative and trophic changes in the innervation zone of the affected nerve.

The foundation of instrumental diagnostics traditionally consists of such studies as radiography of the spine, Echo-EG, EEG, REG, electromyography, in children of the 1st year of life – neurosonography. They are replaced by more accurate diagnostic methods: computed tomography, MRI, PET of the brain, ultrasound of the vessels of the head, duplex scanning. And, if REG and echoencephalography, as methods of diagnosing nervous diseases, gradually lose their significance, then EMG and EEG remain indispensable. They make it possible to identify functional changes occurring in many that are not diagnosed by neuroimaging methods. In some nervous diseases, diagnostic search requires lumbar puncture, stereotactic biopsy, puncture of the ventricles of the brain, and other diagnostic operations. Since the nervous system is closely interconnected with other organs and systems of the body, for a more accurate diagnosis of nervous diseases, a neurologist (a pediatric neurologist) often needs consultations from other specialists: an ophthalmologist, an endocrinologist, a cardiologist, an orthopedist, etc.

Treatment as a rule, includes a whole range of measures aimed not only at combating the cause of the disease and its etiopathogenetic mechanisms, but also at maximum recovery of the neurological deficit resulting from the disease. For this purpose, physiotherapy, physical therapy, mechanotherapy, reflexology, manual therapy are widely used in the treatment of nervous diseases. Treatment of aneurysms, tumors, intracerebral hematomas, abscesses and cysts of the brain requires surgical intervention. In some cases, surgical treatment is used for epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. Brain surgeries and spinal cord interventions are performed by neurosurgeons. They carry out modern surgical treatment of nervous diseases with the help of minimally invasive microsurgical techniques and under the control of neuroimaging. Methods of functional neurosurgery have been developed that are successfully used for torsion dystonia, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s chorea and other nervous diseases accompanied by muscle tone disorders, tremor or hyperkinesis.
You can learn more about the causes, symptoms, methods of diagnosis and treatment of individual nervous diseases in the corresponding section of the Medical Directory of Diseases. The Medic Journal website also provides descriptions of the main hardware studies that help diagnose various nervous diseases.

Anencephaly

Anencephaly is a malformation of the nervous system in which the fetus lacks large hemispheres of the brain, underdeveloped bones of the cranial vault, soft tissues of the head. The anomaly occurs under the influence of chemical, biological or physical teratogenic factors. Most fetuses with anencephaly die in the prenatal period, and even with live…

Anterograde Amnesia

Anterograde amnesia is a disorder of long—term memorization of events occurring after the occurrence of pathological changes. It is characterized by forgetting places, people, events while preserving current memory and memories of the past. The clinical picture shows symptoms typical of the underlying disease. Diagnosis is carried out according to anamnesis, neurological examination, cognitive testing,…

Arcuate Foramen

Arcuate foramen is the presence of an additional bone arch in the structure of the first cervical vertebra, which restricts the movements of the vertebral artery and causes its compression syndrome. Kimberly’s anomaly is characterized by dizziness, tinnitus, unsteadiness of gait and coordination disorder, “flies” and darkening of the eyes, bouts of loss of consciousness…

Chiari Malformation

Chiari malformation (Arnold-Chiari syndrome) is a disease in which the brain structures located in the posterior cranial fossa are lowered in the caudal direction and exit through the large occipital foramen. Depending on the type, Chiari malformation can manifest itself as headache in the back of the head, pain in the cervical region, dizziness, nystagmus,…

Brain Malformations

Brain malformations are the result of disorders occurring in the intrauterine period of the formation of individual cerebral structures or the brain as a whole. They often have nonspecific clinical symptoms: mainly epileptic syndrome, mental and mental retardation. The severity of the clinic directly correlates with the degree of brain damage. They are diagnosed antenatally…

Cerebral Aneurysm

Cerebral aneurysm are pathological local protrusions of the walls of the arterial vessels of the brain. With a tumor-like course, a cerebral aneurysm simulates a clinic of volumetric formation with damage to the optic, trigeminal and oculomotor nerves. With apoplexy, an aneurysm of the cerebral vessels manifests itself as symptoms of subarachnoid or intracerebral hemorrhage, which…

Angioneurosis

Angioneurosis is a group of peripheral vascular diseases caused by a local violation of the regulation of vascular tone. The main clinical symptoms are pain, discoloration, temperature, sensitivity and trophic skin of the affected area. In the process of diagnosis, they rely on clinical data, the results of hemodynamic and microcirculatory studies (angiography, ultrasound, capillaroscopy,…

Amusia

Amusia is an innate or acquired inability to perceive and reproduce musical rhythms, melodies. Patients with amusia lose the ability to master musical notation, cannot perform vocal parts and instrumental compositions, do not recognize familiar melodies. Oral speech is preserved at the same time. Diagnostic examination includes neuroimaging studies (brain CT or MRI), assessment of…

Amnesia

Amnesia is a pathological loss of memories of current or past life circumstances. It is included in the symptoms of neurological diseases, mental disorders, acute poisoning, chronic intoxication. The diagnostic process takes into account clinical data, the results of neurological and mental examination, EEG, MRI, CT, blood test, analysis of cerebrospinal fluid. Treatment is carried…

Kugelberg Velander Disease

Kugelberg Velander disease is a spinal muscular atrophy characterized by late development and the most benign course. Characterized by atrophy of the muscles of the pelvic girdle and hips, followed by the addition of atrophy of the shoulder girdle and shoulders, a combination of muscle weakness and hypotension with fascicular twitching, the presence of pseudohypertrophy.…