I am trying to find out information about stroke paitents who develop
foot drop. Foot drop is a condition where weakness in ankle and foot
muscles cause the foot to slap to the ground when walking.
 
Can someone tell me how many people who have had strokes develop foot drop
around the world?

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Clarification of Question by ekw70-ga on 07 Nov 2003 09:49 PST

Dear Tehuti,

Thank you very much for your information. I had no idea that this
would be such a tough thing to pin down. At least now I have a place
to start. I really appreciate your help.

Hello ekw70,

I've trawled through a number of abstracts and web pages, but found
nothing beyond a comment that this is a "common complication" of
stroke.  The only reference I found to any statistical treatment
concerns only a small area in Ireland.  However, if you can obtain a
copy of the article, it might give you an order of magnitude answer
with which to work. Alternatively, you could try contacting one of the
authors (details below), who might well be able to provide you with
more extensive information.

Leane, G.E., G.M. Lyons, D.J. Lyons. 
"The incidence of drop foot following stroke in the St. Camillus?
catchment area within the mid-western health board."
Irish Journal of Medical Science, 1998, Vol, 167 (Suppl. 4) p. 275

GM Lyons is currently at the University of Limerick 
http://www.ece.ul.ie/ 
Select "Personnel" and then "Academic Staff" and then Lyons, Gerard
(about half way down the left hand column of names), and you will
obtain contact details.

During my searches, I came across a Danish implantable device to
correct foot drop, which is supposed to be (have been) introduced in
Europe this year, with American and Japanese releases to come later. 
I thought it might be of interest to you:
http://www.neurodan.com/actigt.html

Hello ekw70,

I was able to locate some worldwide stroke statistics from the
"Hospital Pharmacist," Feb. 2002, Vol. 9, P. 33.  It documents 5.45
million deaths from stroke with over 9 million stroke survivors. 
Hopefully we can determine the percentage of patients affected with
footdrop, and back into the figures you're looking for. 
http://www.pharmj.com/pdf/hp/200202/hp_200202_stroke1.pdf

Additionally, this article from the  "Journal of American Physical
Therapy," Vol. 82 · Number 11 · November 2002, factors in a variety of
brain injuries, but lists the ankle as the second most affected joint
at 76%, with the hip being affected at the rate of 81%.    I'm listing
these figures in case they are of any interest to you, and I hope
another researcher is able to assist you further. 
http://www.ptjournal.org/PTJournal/Nov2002/v82n11p1087.cfm

Included search terms:
Jerrold Petrofsky, M.D.
Parastep

Best of luck to you,
V