Acupuncture helps improving foot drop
Foot drop, sometimes called drop foot is a muscular weakness or paralysis that makes it difficult to lift the front part of your foot and toes. This causes the toes to drag along the ground while walking. To avoid dragging the toes, people with foot drop may lift their knee higher than normal. Or they may swing their leg in a wide arc. Foot drop can happen to one foot or both feet at the same time. Foot drop is a symptom rather than a condition. The causes could be muscle disorders, nerve damage in the leg, or brain and/or spinal injury. Muscles disorders including muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and polio cause the muscles to progressively weaken causing foot drop. Some conditions including sports injuries, diabetes, spending long hours sitting cross-legged or squatting, hip or knee replacement surgery, childbirth etc could cause peroneal nerve damage or compressed causing foot drop. Brain or spinal disorders including stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS) and cerebral palsy also can cause foot drop.
The treatments depend on the causes of the foot drop which include physiotherapy, wearing an ankle-foot orthosis, electrical nerve stimulation and surgery. Acupuncture was also reported to be useful to help improving foot drop.
References
Jagirdar PC Indian J Lepr (1986 58:618-22
Liu ZP et al Zhongguoe Zhen Jiu (2012) 32:293-6
