Progressive amyotrophy as a late complication of myelopathy.

A delayed syndrome of progressive weakness has been described in survivors of paralytic poliomyelitis - "Post-Polio Muscular Atrophy (PPMA)". One proposed etiology is a drop-out of motor neurons due to increased metabolic demands of an enlarged motor unit territory. We report a patient with slowly progressive lower extremity weakness 20 years after recovery from an episode of myelopathy involving the lower lumbar and sacral segments of the spinal cord. Delayed progressive amyotrophy may complicate any significant injury to anterior horn cells.