Is Muscle Weakness A Common Symptom Of Post-polio Syndrome?

Posted on Tue, 30 Aug 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 30 Aug 2016 Answered on

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi Doctor,

I was affected by Polio at the age of 6 months. As the polio attack was minor so I recovered in 1 month. Later on when I started walking I had minor limp and my left has always been thinner than my right leg. Now my age is 34 and have started facing the PPS symptoms. Within last 15 days I have lost some muscle strength and more muscle size. I have started noticing my left leg is getting thinner. It's so depressing.

Is there anyway i can gain the muscle size and streangth. Even if some surgery is required please suggest.

I was wondering about Tandon Transfer to gain increased muscle size. Please advice.

XXXX

Answered by Dr. Dr. Naveen Kumar Sharma (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Plastic surgery can help you

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
I have studied your case. It is quite unusual to have sudden weakness in old polio limb. I would suggest you to get muscle biopsy to make sure that it is due to polio. As far as treatment is concerned you need to get plastic surgery done for this. There is no medicine which can improve such muscle wasting.
I hope this answer will be useful for you. Let me know if you have any other follow up questions.
Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar