Peroneal Neuropathy

I have a friend who fell on his knees, hard, about 5 years ago.  He had a lot of swelling for about 3 weeks that eventually went away.  He started having problems with his feet after he fell and they have gotten progressively worse.   He has numbness and tingling in his legs and feet.  When he sits down with his legs out his toes point down and kind of get stuck in that position and he can't straighten them out.  He doesn't really have any problems walking, all seems to be ok when he is standing or walking.  He says that the numbness and tingling is still there though. He can't stand on his heels but he can stand on his toes.  He had an emg / nerve conduction study that indicated severe peroneal neuropathy.  He is seeing an orthopedic foot doctor who doesn't think that the results of the emg/ nerve conduction study and problem with the feet is related and doesn't think that the fall had anything to do with either problem.  the doctor has gone so far to say that its all in his head and doesn't seem interested in finding out about the peroneal neuropathy.  His family doctor had blood work done because he thought it was due to diabetes or thyroid or other problems.  All the blood work was normal.  I have been trying to get him to see another doctor and have been encouraging him to see a neurologist instead of orthopedic.  I found this web site and decided to write to ask if its possible that all of the symptoms are intertwined with peroneal neuropathy and if so, could he have done this when he fell?  Am I right in trying to get him to see a neurologist instead of the foot doctor?

[bhups1]

Hi, possibly it is related with peroneal neuropathy and do consult neurologist. Some of the common symptoms with peroneal neuropathy are:

•“If the lesion is severe, a complete foot drop that spares plantar flexion and foot inversion is noted.
•The gait will be high-stepping with "foot slapping."
•In milder cases, weakness of foot eversion and dorsiflexion may be noted only by asking the patient to walk on his or her heels.
•Tapping of the nerve at the fibular head may produce pain and tingling in the peroneal sensory nerve distribution.
•Distribution of peroneal sensory disturbance assists in localizing the lesion. Numbness in the lower part of the lateral distal leg suggests superficial peroneal sensory involvement, while numbness of the upper part of the lateral distal leg suggests deep peroneal sensory distribution. With common peroneal lesions, sensory loss is noted over the lateral calf and dorsum of the foot but spares the fifth toe”.

Taken from website http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic588.htm