Preliminary evidence of the efficacy of the repetitive muscle vibration therapy in chronic foot drop

Abstract

The tibialis anterior, the main dorsiflexor muscle of the foot, is innervated by the peroneal nerve. Common peroneal nerve lesion represent the most common nerve lesions of the lower limb and can be due to several causative mechanisms. Although the most frequent cause is a common peroneal neuropathy at the neck of the fibula, other causes include anterior horn cell disease, lumbar plexopathies, L5 radiculopathy and partial sciatic neuropathy secondary to total hip replacement. People with common peroneal nerve lesion have a foot drop. In this article we studied the temporal, kinetic and kinematic aspect of gait in a group of nine people who had a chronic foot drop (more than 2 years from the acute event), before and after treatment with focal repetitive muscle vibration on tibial anterior.