Respective Contributions of Instrumented 3D Gait Analysis Data and Tibial Motor Nerve Block on Presurgical Spastic Equinus Foot Assessment: A Retrospective Study of 40 Adults

Spastic equinus foot is a common condition in people with neurological problems that makes walking difficult. It's caused by an imbalance between weak muscles that lift the foot (dorsiflexors) and overactive muscles that point the foot down (plantar flexors). Doctors use different tests to figure out which muscles are causing the problem, like feeling the muscles, temporarily numbing certain nerves to see how it affects movement, and using special equipment to analyze how someone walks. This study compared these tests in 40 adults with brain or spinal cord injuries. It found that numbing a nerve in the calf can help doctors better assess muscle tightness and that more specific tests are needed to check the activity of a muscle in the front of the leg (tibialis anterior).

• 1
  Clinical data collected before motor nerve block was not associated with instrumental data to assess calf muscle’s overactivity and tibialis anterior function.
• 2
  Improvement of ankle dorsiflexion in the swing phase after tibial motor nerve block was associated with soleus spastic co-contraction during this phase corroborating its involvement in ankle dorsiflexion defects.
• 3
  This study showed the relevance of tibial motor nerve block to remove spastic calf dystonia and facilitate the assessment of calf contracture.