What is muscle spasm (hypertonia)?

  Spasticity is a movement disorder caused by different central nervous system disorders and characterized by involuntary muscle contraction responses and velocity-dependent hyperactivity of the detrusor reflex, and is a component of the upper motor neuron syndrome. The defining clinical feature of spasticity is the excessive resistance experienced by the examiner when passively stretching a muscle group. Spasticity is the main factor affecting casual movements, and reducing spasticity shortens the motor recovery process and is the key to facilitating motor rehabilitation. Spasticity is often a bottleneck in the recovery of upper limb function in patients with chronic stroke, and it is also one of the most prominent problems in patients with delayed rehabilitation or inappropriate rehabilitation.  Since spasticity can seriously affect the recovery of casual movements, early identification of spasticity and determination of the degree of spasticity are of great importance in neurorehabilitation clinics. However, spasticity is fickle, and conditions such as stress, insomnia, fatigue, cold, and pain can rapidly worsen spasticity.  Limb spasticity occurs in 39% of stroke patients and 50% of patients with traumatic brain injury. Persistent spasticity not only leads to muscle contracture and pain, but also severely affects the functional recovery of the limb, resulting in decreased ability to perform activities of daily living and quality of life (especially upper limb spasticity). Currently, commonly used treatments to relieve muscle spasticity include physical therapy, oral or intrathecal injection of antispasticity drugs, botulinum toxin injection, pharmacological nerve blocks, and surgery, etc. Some of these measures have obvious adverse effects, and some are invasive or invasive operations, so their use in clinical practice is somewhat limited.