Incarceration syndrome, or blocking syndrome, is a rare neurological disease, in which paralysis occurs in all muscles of the body, with the exception of muscles that control the movement of the eyes or eyelids.
In this disease, the patient is “trapped” in his own body, unable to move or communicate, but remains conscious, noticing everything that happens around him and his memory remains intact. This syndrome has no cure, but there are procedures that can help improve a person’s quality of life, such as a kind of helmet that can identify what the person needs, so that it can be treated.
Symptoms of incarceration syndrome may include
In general, patients can only move their eyes up and down, because even the lateral movements of the eyes are compromised. The person also feels pain, but cannot communicate and is therefore unable to describe a movement, as if he did not feel. any pain.
Diagnosis is based on the signs and symptoms presented and can be confirmed by tests such as MRI or CT scans, for example.
The causes of incarceration syndrome may be head trauma, after a stroke, drug side effects, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cranioencephalic trauma, meningitis, brain hemorrhage or snakebite In this syndrome, the information the brain sends to the body is not complete captured by muscle fibers and the body therefore does not respond to orders sent by the brain.
Treatment of incarceration syndrome does not cure the disease, but it does help improve a person’s quality of life. Currently, technologies are used to facilitate communication that can translate into signals, such as a wink, what the person thinks of in words, allowing the other person to understand it. Another possibility is to use a kind of hood with electrodes on the head that interprets what the person thinks in order to answer him.
You can also use a small device with electrodes attached to the skin capable of promoting muscle contraction to reduce stiffness, but it is difficult for the person to regain movement and most die in the first year after the onset of the disease. The most common cause of death is the buildup of secretions in the airways, which occurs naturally when the person does not move.
Thus, to improve the quality of life and avoid this accumulation of secretions, it is recommended that the person undergo motor and respiratory physiotherapy at least twice a day, an oxygen mask can be used to facilitate breathing and feeding should be performed by catheter, which requires the use of diapers to contain urine and feces.
Care should be the same as that of a person prostrate in an unconscious bed and if the family does not provide this type of care, the person may die from infections or accumulation of secretions in the lungs, which can cause pneumonia.