Harvesters Palsy: An Electrophysiological Study

Abstract

A unique phenomenon was observed in the neurodiagnostic lab of Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences Rohtak, Haryana, India during the harvesting season of wheat crop, where a few patients came with footdrop giving similar type of history that they were working in the fields in squatting position for harvesting continously for 5-8 hours per day since last 10-20 days without taking a break of more than half an hour. A total of twelve such farmers were examined. Nerve conduction studies were done by using equipment Recorders and Medicare Systems-Electromyography EP Mark-II Chandigarh. Out of these twelve farmers, ten were having footdrop on right side, while two were having on the left side confirmed by neurological examination. Nerve conduction studies showed reduced motor nerve conduction velocity and amplitude of peroneal nerve on affected side, while latency was increased on that side. By this study, it was concluded that peroneal neuropathy is the most common cause of footdrop in farmers doing harvesting manually.