Objective

The post-polio syndrome (PPS), clinical entity that occurs at least 15 years of stability after acute polio results in specific symptoms. If its pathophysiology remains unsolved its functional impact is considerable. The objectives are two folds, establish the epidemiological profile and search the harmful elements for its prevention.

Materials/patients and methods

Prospective descriptive study, from 2010 to 2013, about 104 former polio victims. The tools: pain-scale, fatigue-scale of Borg and a preset plug for data collection, including historical elements of polio and diagnostic criteria of Halstead. The analysis was done on SPSS.

Results

The prevalence of PPS is 46%. The average age of patients-SPP is 41.4 years. This syndrome is due to fatigue, muscle pain and/or joint, new muscle weakness in healthy or those already affected muscles, and intolerance to cold. The occurrences of risk factors for post polio syndrome are obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m ² ) and age over 4 years in the acute phase of polio.

Discussion/Conclusion

In our study, the prevalence of PPS is 46%, a result close to a Swedish study but different from that reported by a French study (23%). The average age is 40 years, whereas it is more advanced in the other series. Age AAP achieving average is between 1 to 3 years with a frequency of 68.75%, results similar to those of the Norwegian team. Sex is not a risk factor for PPS, is it a selection bias? Muscle pain is 60.42% consistent with other studies. The fatigue, main symptom joining results of Australian and American teams. New amyotrophies and constant sign are found in all series. The cold intolerance is more pronounced in our study appears in other series:

– PPS syndrome is at the origin of a degradation of the quality of life;

– Prevention is to fight against risk factors, especially obesity.

The management of SPP is long with a multidisciplinary collaboration. Therapeutic weapons ranging from economics of daily activity to the immunoglobulin replacement therapy.