A rare emergency condition in neurosurgery: foot drop due to Paget's disease.

ABSTRACT

Paget's disease is a chronic, focal skeletal disorder that usually affects the pelvis and spine. Spinal cases are generally asymptomatic; in the symptomatic cases, the neurological dysfunctions are related to non-compressive vascular defects, hemorrhage, sarcomatoid degeneration, spinal stenosis, or pathological fractures, primarily in the lumbar region. The Neurosurgeon should have a fundamental understanding of the complications of Paget's disease and should be familiar with the indications for treatment, as well as available medical and surgical therapies. In the present paper, we report a case of Paget's disease that presented with an isolated foot drop due to a pathological fracture of L5 vertebra, and then discuss the therapeutic strategies presented in the literature.