Post-polio syndrome

For a lay person:

Post-polio syndrome is a condition that can appear many years after recovery from polio, causing new weakness, tiredness and pain in muscles that were affected before or in ones that seemed unaffected. It develops slowly and can make walking, breathing or swallowing harder. It is not catching and is not a return of the polio infection.

For a trained medical person:

Late effects of poliomyelitis include residual paralysis and deformity, and post-polio syndrome, thought to result from degeneration of enlarged motor units formed by surviving anterior horn cells after the original infection. Diagnosis is clinical, requiring prior confirmed polio, a period of stability, then new progressive weakness, after excluding other causes. Management is multidisciplinary: pacing of activity, tailored non-fatiguing exercise, orthoses and mobility aids, and assessment of breathing, sleep and swallowing.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Qi Deficiency and Blood Stasis; Liver and Kidney Deficiency. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: See a doctor for new weakness, falls, or trouble breathing, sleeping or swallowing, and seek urgent care for breathlessness. Polio itself is prevented by vaccination.