Acute bilateral isolated foot drop: Report of two cases

Foot drop is defined as the weakness of the foot and ankle dorsiflexion. Acute unilateral foot drop is a well-documented entity, whereas bilateral foot drop is rarely documented. Slowly progressing bilateral foot drop may occur with various metabolic causes, parasagittal intracranial pathologies, and cauda equina syndrome. Acute onset of bilateral foot drop due to disc herniation is extremely rare. Here we present two cases of acute bilateral foot drop due to disc herniation. The first patient was a 45-year-old man presented with acute bilateral foot drop, without any sign of the cauda equina syndrome. Lumbar magnetic resonance imaging of the patient revealed L4-5 disc herniation. To our knowledge, this is the first presented case of acute bilateral foot drop without any signs of cauda equina syndrome caused by L4-5 disc herniation. The second patient was a 50-year-old man who was also presented with acute bilateral foot drop, and had T12-L1 disc herniation with intradural extension. Also this is the first presented case of T12-L1 disc herniation with intradural extension causing acute bilateral foot drop. We performed emergent decompressive laminectomy to both of the patients and extrude disc materials were excised. Both of the patients were recovered with favorable outcome.