Feasibility of a promising pulsed electrostimulator for rapid motor recovery of foot drop.

PURPOSE: Foot drop still occurs in clinical practice, including in our case. Treatments for foot drop vary based on its etiology and severity of symptoms. Hence, in intractable foot drop cases, an invasive surgical intervention is needed. Here, we introduce a special noninvasive technique to treat our patient's foot drop. In this approach, we applied STIMPOD NMS460 neuromuscular stimulator device (STIMPOD NMS460), which is a low-frequency (10 Hz or less) transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) device with a pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) component. We are eager to know how effective the device is in treating foot drop, and we compared it with two kinds of surgical interventions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The device settings are 5 Hz in frequency and 30mA in current amplitude. The device was applied on her left side at the L4 and L5 regions and at the fibular head. Each therapy session consists of individual 15-min treatments on these two body areas, and it only takes a total of 30 minutes. We recorded the change in ankle dorsiflexion degrees and muscle strength of our patient.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: To our surprise, our patient's actual treatment status through STIMPOD NMS460 showed more effective recovery and no specific side effects than surgical interventions in similar conditions. Besides, after a three-month intervention, her affected ankle dorsiflexion recovered to almost her usual status. The reason why this device has such an effect may be that it has the benefits of TENS and PRF. Besides, some studies have revealed the nerve-repair effect of TENS and PRF. In conclusion, we believe that this device is fairly promising and may be qualified to be used in other patients with foot drop.