Fig. 5

The tibialis anterior muscle force among the three groups. A. Relationship between the time from symptom onset to neurolysis and post-surgery muscle strength (M3 vs. M5). Patients with M5 muscle strength after surgery (3.37 ± 2.43) had a significantly shorter period from symptom onset to surgical treatment compared to those with M3 muscle strength (7.25 ± 3.07). P=0.011. Data from one patient, whose muscle strength had recovered to M5, was excluded from the analysis due to an unusually long time interval (24 months) between symptom onset and neurolysis. When including this patient’s data, the time interval for patients with M5 was 4.66 ± 5.52, and the P value was 0.0549. B-C. Duration from symptom onset to neurolysis in relation to changes in tibialis anterior muscle force. B. Patients with 4 (4.16 ± 2.79) or 5 (3.5 ± 1.89) grade muscle strength improvements exhibited shorter time intervals than those with 0–2 improvements (13.33 ± 7.72). P=0.03 (compared to 4 grade improvements), P=0.02 (compared to 5 grade improvements). C. Patients with 4-5 grade muscle strength improvements (3.83 ± 2.41) had shorter time intervals than those with 0–3 improvements (8.78 ± 5.98). P=0.03. *, P<0.05; error bars represent the standard deviation (SD). n=33 for panel A, n=21 for panels B-C. TA, tibialis anterior