Decompression and fusion combined with rehabilitation training for the foot drop secondary to lumbar degenerative disease: Case report and literature review

Foot drop (FD) secondary to lumbar degenerative disease is a relatively uncommon finding in spinal practice. Although only a part of patients with FD can obtain satisfactory recovery of their muscle strength after operation, most of the articles still advocate surgical intervention at early stage. Despite the double roots compression is one of the accepted causes for FD, we describe an extremely rare case of a middle-age man presenting with a severe foot drop (tibialis anterior = 0/5) resulted from three roots compression (L4-S1), who had undergone pedicle screws fixation (L3-S1), transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) at L4/5, laminotomy and discectomy at L5/S1 with laminotomy at L3/4 as well as conventional rehabilitation training postoperatively, which included strength training of the active and antagonistic muscles in the week lower extremity. Twelve months after surgery, the patient recovered from his deficit (tibialis anterior improved from 0/5 to 4/5). Therefore, we discuss the possible pathological mechanism and surgical option for the foot drop due to the lumbar degenerative disease as well as the potential risk factors portending prognosis postoperatively.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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