Late Effects of Polio-Introduction to Clinical Practice
Acute poliomyelitis (‘polio’, ‘infantile paralysis’) is increasingly a disease of history as a result of the adoption in 1988 at the forty-first World Health Assembly of a resolution for the worldwide eradication of polio, and the subsequent Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Despite this progress towards the eradication of polio, in recent years it has become increasingly apparent that new muscle weakness, atrophy and fasciculations can develop years and decades after a patient suffered an episode of acute paralytic poliomyelitis. There is a lack of consensus in the literature as to the nomenclature used to describe these new health problems being experienced by previous sufferers of acute paralytic poliomyelitis, but the terms ‘The Late Effects of Polio’ (LEoP), ‘PostPolio Syndrome’ (PPS) and ‘Post-Polio Muscular Atrophy’ are frequently employed…….
The article breaks down the symptoms, diagnostics and treatment modalities of PPS.