Improved walking capacity after complementary ankle-foot surgery and gait training in a person with an incomplete tetraplegia; a case report

Introduction The population of people with a spinal cord injury (SCI) is changing to a diverse population with an increasing number of incomplete lesions. Often, these individuals have the capacity to walk, but experience disabling gait impairments. Case presentation The course of a 34-year-old male with a chronic incomplete traumatic cervical SCI who initially could walk no more than a few steps with supervision or a wheeled walker is described. He participated in a clinical trial with Targeted Epidural Spinal Stimulation (TESS). After this trial, he was able to walk with a wheeled walker and bilateral orthosis over a distance of 100 meters. Despite these improvements, his main complaints were (1) difficulty to correctly preposition the feet, and (2) pain in his toe and calf muscles. An interdisciplinary approach and the use of structured gait analysis formed the basis for shared decision-making with the team and the patient to perform ankle-foot surgery followed by 2-month gait training with a body weight support system. After this trajectory his walking distance increased to 250 meters, with a wheeled walker; but now without orthosis and with an increased walking speed compared to pre-surgery. Additionally, there was reduction of pain and he experienced no disturbances during sleeping, washing and clothing anymore. Discussion This case shows that surgical interventions can improve the gait capacity even in case of chronic incomplete SCI. Furthermore, training with a body weight support system after medical-technical interventions is useful to utilize the full potential of these interventions.