Volume 24, Issue 103, May - June, 2020

A case study on the impact of physiotherapy on unilateral foot drop after lumbar fusion and discectomy

Anjali Bais, Dushyant Bawiskar, Waqar M. Naqvi^♦, Arti Sahu

Ravi Nair Physiotherapy College, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Wardha, Maharashtra, India

^♦Corresponding author
Professor and Head of Department, Community Health Physiotherapy, Ravi Nair Physiotherapy College, Wardha, Maharashtra, India; Email: waqar.naqvi@dmimsu.edu.in

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Foot drop is defined as the inability to lift the foot up at the ankle (dorsiflex). Patient with foot drop are frequently encountered in the clinic but foot drop as the complication of orthopedic surgery is much less common. Case description: A case of a 45 year old male is presented in this report with a history of chronic low back pain and lumbar degenerative disease who underwent posterior decompression and spinal fusion of L4-L5 which further led to sudden weakness in the right lower leg without any complaints of pain. It resulted in secondary complications like loss of complete motor activity of the lower leg, improper gait and difficulty in carrying out activities of daily living since the patient did not show any concern initially. Assessment, medical history and treatment have been discussed in this case study. Conclusion: The case study concluded that there is a significant effect of the given therapeutic intervention on the muscle strength, muscle re-education and Activities of daily living (ADL) of the patient. The secondary complication can be avoided if the patients would get the proper care from the beginning.

Keywords: Foot drop, gait, muscle re-education

Medical Science, 2020, 24(103), 1773-1779

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