Question: I scraped and cut my leg that is most affected by polio. It has not healed after two months. (I am not diabetic.) My family physician is sending me to a wound clinic. What can I expect at the wound clinic? Have you seen slow healing in polio survivors? Do you have any other advice? Answer: There are many …
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Is Further Corrective Surgery After a Grice-Green Procedure Ill-Advised?
Question: I had a Grice-Green procedure in 1955 to correct toe drop and weak foot muscles in my right foot secondary to polio. I have had outstanding results since then. Though I have a gait specific to my disability, I am a hiker and can walk with good hiking boots for as far as eight miles. This is becoming more …
Nerve Tests to Determine Polio Diagnoses
Question: I am 79 years old and was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome a few years ago. I was originally diagnosed with polio when I was nine years old. On a follow-up visit to Rancho Los Amigos in Downey, California, the doctor I saw (different from the one I had previously seen) told me he wasn’t certain that I had ever …
How Successful are Knee Replacements for Post-Polio Syndrome Patients and What is Recovery Like?
Question: I am an 83-year-old female polio survivor. The knee on my polio-afflicted right leg is bone-on-bone. My doctor is pressing me to get a knee replacement. How successful are knee replacements for post-polio syndrome patients and what is recovery like? Marny Eulberg, MD: I don’t have any statistics on success and recovery after knee replacements in polio survivors, and …
Vaccines in Polio Survivors with Muscle Deterioration
Question: I’m a 69-year-old male who contracted polio in the early 1950s. My right arm was totally paralyzed from contracting polio. I was diagnosed with PPS about nine years ago. During the diagnosis, I was told that my left arm had serious muscle weakness. At the time, the doctor said my deltoid muscle was roughly 40%. When my primary doctor …
Should a Polio Survivor with Some Breathing Problems Have a Heart Stress Test?
Question: I am going to have a heart stress test. Is it dangerous for a 72-year-old polio survivor who has some breathing problems to do so? Dr. Maynard: A Stress Test does involve some risks, but they are minimized by medical professionals trained and equipped to handle cardiac arrests and arrhythmia should they occur. I am unaware of evidence to …
Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy and Post-Polio Syndrome
Question: In cervical spondylotic myelopathy there may be muscle weakness in lower limbs and gait disturbance, so it may be confused with a post-polio syndrome in a person who has had polio. Is there some information regarding the prevalence of this pathology in elderly patients who have had polio and how to diagnose correctly and not attribute the new weakness …
Advice for Foot Edema After Hernia Surgery
Question: I have lower left leg PPS atrophy. Since hernia surgery recently, I haven’t been able to walk or bicycle as I regularly used to do. I’ve sometimes noticed worrisome foot edema that is more pronounced and sustained since the surgery. Other than trying not to sit for too long, cutting back on salt and elevating the leg more, is …
EMG on Limb with No Electrical Response and Other Options?
Question: I have a question regarding differential diagnosis specifically utilizing electromyographpy (EMG, a test that measures the electrical activity of muscles at rest and during contraction). I am 63 with a family history of stenosis. I have low back pain, sometimes radiating diagonally to the hip/thigh region and increasing in intensity, leading to sudden inability to rise from sitting to …
Cortisone Shot Side Effects and Hip Replacement Anxiety
Question: Several years ago my right ankle muscles gave out after a cortisone shot. I wear a brace to steady this leg. Now, after two bad falls, my left hip will need replacement. My current orthopedic physician wanted to give me a cortisone shot, and I refused, recalling the reaction from my ankle. Now I am frightened about hip replacement, …