The role of neurosurgical interventions for control of spasticity in neurorehabilitation: new findings on functional microanatomy of the tibial nerve.

Harmful spasticity after cerebral or spinal damage disturbs functional recovery in neurorehabilitation, but neurosurgical interventions for relief of spasticity are not widely performed, at least in Asian countries including Japan. We have been performing various types of neurosurgical treatment for spasticity such as selective peripheral neurotomy, selective dorsal rhizotomy, microsurgical DREZotomy, and intrathecal baclofen administration. We deal with both children and adults. From our experience of tibial neurotomy, in particular, we describe functional microsurgical anatomy of the tibial nerve in the popliteal fossa. This is the first report on this regional functional anatomy.