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Thigh weakness/foot drop after spine surgery
Spine Health | Last Active: May 3, 2024 | Replies (77)Comment receiving replies
Thank you for your response. I did discuss it with my surgeon & his PA after my follow-up appointments as well as last summer. They seem to want me to give it more time. My foot drop isn't a typical foot drop in the sense that I can move my foot, but more rather is it steming from the weakness in my thigh and I am toe dragging and a foot slap when I walk. My surgery was fall of 2021, I am fused from L1-S1.
Replies to "Thank you for your response. I did discuss it with my surgeon & his PA after..."
I had foot drop about a decade ago, then I got brachial plexitis and previously carpal tunnel. Eventually I was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory polyradiculopathy or CIPD. It is a motor nerve dysfunction disorder. Mine was diagnosed through nerve and muscle testing. Just throwing that out there and that there can be more than one cause of foot drop. I wish you the best
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That is exactly how my foot drop is. I would say it is very typical for foot drop.
My foot doesn't flop around or anything. I can still walk reasonable well. I just can't stand on my tippy toes very well. When the surgeon asks me to hold my foot up while he gently pushes it down, I have little or no strength to hold my foot up. I have no pain in my foot but it is weak and numb like it is asleep.
An electromyogram (EMG) and nerve conduction study (NCS) was done to "delineate the damage" as it was phrased. These tests were also done to try to determine what was causing my foot drop.
Any type of nerve damage takes time to improve. Doctors generally say to wait a year to see if it gets better. They especially say this when they don't think they can help the situation.