spastic cerebral palsy discovery cerebral palsy was first discovered and medically defined in by dr william john little little attributed the disease to a lack of oxygen to an infant during abnormal forms of labor resulting in a spastic condition his work on the disease was so groundbreaking that it was first known as little's disease definition cerebral palsy is a disease that effects the brain and nervous system the disease can be divided into various subsets including spastic cerebral palsy dyskinetic cerebral palsy ataxic cerebral palsy hypotonic cerebral palsy and mixed spastic cerebral palsy is the most common form of this disease it is distinguishable from other forms of cerebral palsy in that sufferers display stiff jerky movements and have hypertonic muscles this differs from non spastic cerebral palsy which causes decreased or fluctuating muscle tone spastic cerebral palsy can itself be divided into unique categories spastic hemipelegia only one side of the body is effected in spastic hemipelgia spastic dipelgia limbs are effected in spastic dipelgia spastic triplegia limbs are effected in spastic diplegia spastic quadripelgia all limbs are effected in spastic quadriplegia