For carpal tunnel of the leg, surgery could make all the difference

Normal foot function is something you don’t think about until it’s gone.

Common peroneal nerve dysfunction can be caused by sudden trauma or injury to the knee. It affects how the leg feels and how the foot functions. For one young college athlete, when physical therapy didn’t work, a complex surgery made all the difference.

Twenty-two-year-old Erin Moran loves to run. But over a year ago, this college student suddenly lost feeling in her right leg.

“It was hard. I was tripping everywhere. I was falling, I wasn’t able to drive,” Moran explains.

The first doctor Erin and her mom visited told Erin she might never walk normally again.

That’s when she was referred to neurosurgeon, Dr. Zarina Ali. Dr. Ali diagnosed Erin with common peroneal nerve dysfunction.

Dr. Ali says, “I commonly explain it to patients as sort of the carpal tunnel of the leg.”

Erin’s peroneal nerve, which runs along the side of the knee, was compressed, causing the numbness and foot drop. After months of physical therapy had no effect, Dr. Ali recommended decompression surgery.

“What we are doing is opening up the area of where that nerve can get entrapped under the muscle fascia,” Dr. Ali describes.

Erin’s surgery was an outpatient procedure. Dr. Ali cautioned her that recovery could take up to a year. But just four months after surgery, Erin began jogging and, on a whim, she did a 10-mile race in October.

“I felt so good that I came home and ran another seven miles,” Erin expressed.

With Dr. Ali’s blessing, Erin signed up to run the Philadelphia marathon.

Erin remembers, “When I hit a point where I didn’t think I could put one foot in front of another, I just looked down at my leg and at my scar, and kind of just tapped it for some good luck.”

That “good luck tap” worked and she finished the entire 26.2-mile race with a smile on her face.

Dr. Ali says many patients, like Erin, often recover fully from common peroneal nerve dysfunction. Erin says she plans to run another marathon again this fall.