Objectives: To describe the clinical characteristics of persistent extension of the great toe related to overactivity of the extensor hallucis longus (EHL) after a stroke and to explore the efficacy of treatment with botulinum toxin type A.
Design: Case series.
Setting: A physical medicine and rehabilitation department in France.
Participants: Eleven patients with hemiplegia disabled by overactivity of the EHL were classified according to the different ways in which that overactivity was triggered. Disability was related to pain in 5 patients, to shoe difficulties in 10 patients, and to varus foot in 6 patients.
Intervention: Injection of botulinum toxin type A into the EHL.
Main outcome measures: Efficacy was assessed on day 15 by triggering of pain, shoe difficulties, and varus deformity and by patients' subjective assessment on day 15, at 3 months, and at 6 months.
Results: On day 15, EHL overactivity disappeared after 16 of the 18 injections in 10 patients; subjective assessment was very good for pain and shoe difficulties and remained good or very good at 3 months for 8 patients who received 12 injections.
Conclusion: Botulinum toxin type A is effective in treating disability related to poststroke overactivity of the EHL.
Copyright 2003 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation