Foot drop as the initial symptom caused by thoracic disc herniation

Presentation and management outcome of foot drop with tibialis posterior tendon transfer

BACKGROUND

Foot drop causes considerable disability. The ankle-dorsiflexion is either weak or lost completely. Additionally, the ankle eversion and toe extensions are also impaired. This results in a high steppage gait while walking. Overall, the gait is awkward; there is greater energy consumption; increased proneness to sustain injury of the forefoot; and more frequent falling during walking.

AIM

To document the clinical and epidemiological profile of foot drop patients in our population and evaluate the outcome of tibialis posterior (TP) tendon transfer for restoring the lost dorsiflexion in foot drop.

METHODS

The study was carried out at the National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine in Islamabad over a period of 7 years. It included patients of all sexes and ages who presented with foot drop and had no contraindications for the procedure of TP tendon transfer. Exclusion criteria were patients who had contraindications for the operation. For instance, paralyzed posterior leg compartment muscles, Achilles tendon contracture, stiff ankle or toes, unstable ankle joint, weak gastrocnemius and scarred skin spanning over the route of planned tendon transfer. Also, patients who had the foot drop as a result of disc prolapses or brain diseases were excluded. Convenience sampling technique was used. The circum-tibial route of TP tendon transfer was employed.

RESULTS

Out of 37 patients, 26 (70.27%) were males whereas 11 (29.72%) were females. The mean age was 22.59 ± 8.19 years. Among the underlying causes of foot drop, road traffic accidents constituted the most common cause, found among 20 (54.05%) patients. The share of complications included wound infections in 3 (8.10%) patients and hypertrophic scars in 2 (5.40%) patients. At 1-year postoperative follow-up visits, the outcome was excellent in 8 (21.62%), good in 20 (54.05%) and moderate in 9 (24.31%).

CONCLUSION

The majority of cases of foot drop resulted from road traffic accidents that directly involved the common peroneal nerve. TP tendon transfer through the circumtibial route was found to be an easily executed effective operation which restored good dorsiflexion of the ankle among the majority of patients.

Degenerative Thoracic Myelopathy: A Scoping Review of Epidemiology, Genetics, and Pathogenesis

STUDY DESIGN

Literature Review.

OBJECTIVE

Myelopathy affecting the thoracic spinal cord can arise secondary to several aetiologies which have similar presentation and management. Consequently, there are many uncertainties in this area, including optimal terminology and definitions. Recent collaborative cervical spinal research has led to the proposal and subsequent community adoption of the name degenerative cervical myelopathy(DCM), which has facilitated the establishment of internationally-agreed research priorities for DCM. We put forward the case for the introduction of the term degenerative thoracic myelopathy(DTM) and degenerative spinal myelopathy(DSM) as an umbrella term for both DCM and DTM.

METHODS

Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic literature search was performed to identify degenerative thoracic myelopathy literature in Embase and MEDLINE.

RESULTS

Conditions encompassed within DTM include thoracic spondylotic myelopathy, ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament, ossification of the ligamentum flavum, calcification of ligaments, hypertrophy of ligaments, degenerative disc disease, thoracic osteoarthritis, intervertebral disc herniation, and posterior osteophytosis. The classic presentation includes girdle pain, gait disturbance, leg weakness, sensory disturbance, and bladder or bowel dysfunction, often with associated back pain. Surgical management is typically favoured with post-surgical outcomes dependent on many factors, including the causative pathology, and presence of additional stenosis.

CONCLUSION

The clinical entities encompassed by the term DTM are interrelated, can manifest concurrently, and present similarly. Building on the consensus adoption of DCM in the cervical spine and the recent proposal of degenerative cervical radiculopathy(DCR), extending this common nomenclature framework to the terms degenerative spinal myelopathy and degenerative thoracic myelopathy will help improve recognition and communication.

Spinal Epidural Tuberculoma with Adjacent Vertebral Fracture: A Case Report

CASE

An 85-year-old woman was transported to our institution due to difficulty in walking. Preoperative imaging showed spinal cord lesions indicative of spinal cord tumor at the T7-8 level, accompanied by T8 vertebral fracture. Intraoperatively, the spinal lesion was suspected to be an epidural abscess; therefore, the capsule was resected, and the abscess was drained. We added pedicle screw fixation at the T6-10 level. Postoperatively, the spinal cord lesion was definitively diagnosed as spinal epidural tuberculoma.

CONCLUSION

Spinal epidural tuberculomas should be considered in the treatment of spinal cord lesions causing paralysis attributed to spinal cord compression.