DRG Category: 58

Mean LOS: 5.8 days

Description MEDICAL: Multiple Sclerosis and Cerebellar Ataxia with Major CC

classification section:



Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, progressive degenerative disease that affects the myelin sheath of the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. Each year, 25,000 people are newly diagnosed with MS, and it is the most common debilitating disease of young adults. The disease affects quality rather than duration of life. In MS, nerve impulses are conducted between the brain and the spinal cord along neurons protected by the myelin sheath, which is a highly conductive fatty material. When plaques form on the myelin sheath, causing inflammation and eventual demyelination, nerve transmission becomes erratic. Areas commonly involved are the optic nerves, cerebrum, and cervical spinal cord. MS is the most common demyelinating disorder in the United States and Europe.

Four forms of MS have been identified. Benign MS, which affects approximately 20% of patients, causes mild disability; infrequent, mild, early attacks are followed by almost complete recovery. Exacerbating-remitting MS, which affects approximately 25% of patients, is marked by frequent attacks that start early in the course of the illness, followed by less complete clearing of signs and symptoms than in benign MS. Chronic relapsing MS, which affects approximately 40% of patients, has fewer, less complete remissions after an exacerbation than has exacerbating-remitting MS. Chronic relapsing MS has a cumulative progression, with more symptoms occurring during each new attack. The fourth form of MS, chronic progressive, afflicts approximately 15% of patients and is similar to chronic relapsing MS except that the onset is more subtle and the disease progresses slowly without remission.