Areflexia (A-REFL) is a term used to refer to a group of disorders characterized by abnormal reflexes. These abnormalities include:
• Hyperreflexia – A person with hyperreflexia may have difficulty seeing objects at close range or even from far away. They might not see them at all.
• Hyporeflexia – A person with hyporeflexia may experience difficulties in reading printed words, such as letters, numbers and punctuation marks. They might not be able to read them at all.
The term “areflexia” refers to the ability of some individuals to control their bladder muscles when they urinate.
There are two types of areflexia:
1. Reflex Type : People with reflex type are unable to control their bladder muscles while urinating.
They do not experience any involuntary spasms or contractions. Instead, these individuals only feel a slight tightening of the pelvic floor muscles during each passing moment.
Their urine flow is controlled by the involuntary contraction of their pelvic floor muscles, which results in the expulsion of urine into one’s hand or another container.
2. Voluntary Type : People with voluntary type are able to control their bladder muscles while urinating.
They experience involuntary spasms and contractions as their bladders release their contents. In contrast, an individual with a reflex bladder will only feel a slight tightening of the pelvic floor muscles during each passing moment.
In this regard, it is possible for a person with a reflex bladder to have voluntary spasms or contractions.
Sources & references used in this article:
An unusual variant of acute idiopathic polyneuritis (syndrome of ophthalmoplegia, ataxia and areflexia) by M Fisher – New England Journal of Medicine, 1956 – Mass Medical Soc
Sensory neuropathy as part of the cerebellar ataxia neuropathy vestibular areflexia syndrome by DJ Szmulewicz, JA Waterston, GM Halmagyi… – Neurology, 2011 – AAN Enterprises
Detrusor areflexia in suprasacral spinal cord injuries by JK Light, J Faganel, A Beric – The Journal of urology, 1985 – auajournals.org
Neuro‐ophthalmic manifestations of the syndrome of ophthalmoplegia, ataxia and areflexia: a review by SN Al‐Din, M Anderson… – Acta neurologica …, 1994 – Wiley Online Library
