English abstract
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic lower motor neuron disease. It usually involves all of
the skeletal muscles innervated by the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. In rare cases, there is also localised
involvement of the spinal cord. We report a 10-year-old boy who presented to the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital,
Muscat, Oman, in 2015 with muscle weakness restricted to the lower limbs. The presence of a homozygous deletion
within the survival of motor neuron 1 gene confirmed the diagnosis of SMA. To the best of the authors' knowledge,
this is the first report of an Omani patient with segmental SMA involving only the lower limbs. Treatment for this rare
and relatively benign form of SMA is symptomatic and includes physiotherapy.
