Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Hemiplegia/hemiparesis
Paralysis or weakness of one side of body
HP:0004374
What it means
Loss of strength in the arm, leg, and sometimes face on one side of the body. Hemiplegia refers to a severe or complete loss of strength, whereas hemiparesis refers to a relatively mild loss of strength.
Rare diseases that can present with this50
Very common80–99%
11- Adult Refsum disease
- Corpus callosum agenesis-neuronopathy syndrome
- Encephalopathy due to sulfite oxidase deficiency
- Facial dysmorphism-macrocephaly-myopia-Dandy-Walker malformation syndrome
- Fetal iodine syndrome
- Gemignani syndrome
- Hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius
- L1 syndrome
- Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
- MASA syndrome
- Spastic paraparesis-deafness syndrome
Common30–79%
18- Aicardi-Goutières syndrome
- Aicardi syndrome
- Alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase deficiency type 1
- Argininemia
- Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor
- Carnitine palmitoyl transferase 1A deficiency
- Cerebellar ataxia-hypogonadism syndrome
- Krabbe disease
- Leber congenital amaurosis
- Maple syrup urine disease
- Multiple sclerosis-ichthyosis-factor VIII deficiency syndrome
- Oculocerebrocutaneous syndrome
- Porencephaly
- Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy
- Septo-optic dysplasia spectrum
- Spastic ataxia-corneal dystrophy syndrome
- Spastic ataxia with congenital miosis
- Woods-Black-Norbury syndrome
Sometimes5–29%
21- 1p36deletion syndrome
- Ataxia with vitamin E deficiency
- Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis
- Familial colorectal cancer Type X
- Galloway-Mowat syndrome
- Gaucher disease
- Homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase deficiency
- Hypocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis
and 13 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Tracking symptoms like this for someone? Eleplan keeps symptoms, diagnoses, medications and every specialist in one plan.
Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.