Peroneal nerve lower leg/foot damage after lumbar fusion?

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wxKathy2

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Hi All,
First I want to thank everyone who has posted about their post-fusion experience and for the "tips" thread. My husband had L4-S1 Fusion on July 15th and thanks to you all I had purchased all the little helpful things that help make him more comfortable right now. Thank you!

However, right after surgery he woke up and could not move his right foot and had nurabness in his lower leg. This has not improved and they call it drop foot or foot drop - unfortunately this was NOT discovered in the recovery room as he had very low BP and everyone was worried about that - we think they did not examine his legs in recovery - it took until the night shift nurse to discover the problem.....They immediately did a CT scan and an MRI to make sure no hardware was on a nerve. The neurosurgeon even came up to the hospital at midnight to see the CT scans himself.....

They believe it is a compression of the peroneal nerve (at the knee) that occurred because of the positioning of his body during surgery which was 4+ hours long....So now he is in PT but they do not think it's going to help so the doc wants an EMG to make sure it is not the back adn then he wants to do a peroneal nerve decompression procedure which is something like a carpal tunnel procedure.

Has this happened to anyone else? Again I am very grateful for the tips at the top of this board and to all who have responded to me in the past regarding my husband......

Hope all of you are doing okay....
Best wishes,
Kathy
 
I am having somewhat similar problem. I had PLIF in 08 L4-S1. My left foot was nurab from the beginning,but after the fusion left side left leg is nurab all the time.
Standing,setting,and walking makes it worse.
I saw my dr first of July, the only thing he said was it was still to early to tell and to wait 6 more months.
I hope everything turns out ok for your husband.
Prays to those that neeRAB them.
 
HI Mary,
I'm very sorry to hear this - thank you for your reply! My husband's left leg would sometimes give out when "his back went out" and he would be on crutches, but he had no nurabness or motion problems prior to surgery and was not on crutches at the time....I have been told it takes nerves an inch/month to heal and that is can take a very long time. However, my husband's neurosurgeon doesn't want to wait so he is going to try the peroneal nerve decompression procedure after the EMG test.....

I am very sorry for your outcome and I do hope you will improve.....Do you have the foot drop too where you cannot raise your left foot upwarRAB? If you do, this decompression surgery might help you too - it's minor and outpatient and I read you can stand on the leg the same day and that it has helped ppl with the drop foot even if it's been a long time since the nerve injury...

Thank you again for your kind reply Mary and I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers that you will get better!

Best wishes,
Kathy
 
Thank you for kind worRAB.
No I don't have foot drop.
Now I have to get a hold of left leg to cross my legs.
I sure hope that your husband get some relief.
I guess we will see in Jan if I make that long.
May God Bless,
Mary
 
Thank you Mary - best wishes to you - hang in there - I understand nerves can take 1-2 years to heal.....I hope you will get better and will keep you in my thoughts...
Best wishes,
Kathy
 
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