opisthotonus
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Opisthotonus or opisthotonos (from and ) is a state of severe hyperextension and spasticity in which an individual's head, neck and spinal column enter into a complete "bridging" or "arching" position.
Key facts
- Medical condition (new).name
- Opisthotonus
- Medical condition (new).image
- Opisthotonus in a patient suffering from tetanus - Painting by Sir Charles Bell - 1809.jpg
- Medical condition (new).caption
- Opisthotonus in a patient suffering from tetanus. Painting by Sir Charles Bell, 1809.
- Medical condition (new).field
- Neurology
- Medical condition (new).symptoms
- Abnormal posturing
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- symptom or sign
- Image
- Opisthotonus in a patient suffering from tetanus - Painting by Sir Charles Bell - 1809.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- has cause
- tetanus
- Commons category
- Opisthotonus
- exact match
- purl.obolibrary.org/obo/SYMP_0000637
- health specialty
- neurology
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Causes
- Infants
- Poisoning
- Drowning and the "dinosaur death pose"{{anchor|dinosaur_death_arch}}
- Vivisection
- Other causes
- References
- External links
Opisthotonus or opisthotonos (from and ) is a state of severe hyperextension and spasticity in which an individual's head, neck and spinal column enter into a complete "bridging" or "arching" position.
This extreme arched pose is an extrapyramidal effect and is caused by spasm of the axial muscles along the spinal column. Among extant animals it naturally occurs in birds, snakes suffering from advanced boid inclusion body disease, and placental mammals; it is also observed in some articulated dinosaur fossils.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “opisthotonus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.