We report on seven children (five males, two females) who presented with marked, often asymmetrical, toe-walking from onset of independent walking, associated with abnormal foot postures and increased tone at the ankles with characteristics of dystonia. Most of the children had presented with unusual pre-walking locomotion and a mild delay in independent walking. They did not fit into the usual categories of 'habitual' toe-walking or congenital short tendo calcaneus but nor did they have the clinical signs of spastic diplegia or of a peripheral neuromuscular disease. Normalization occurred progressively in the second to fourth years of life. The children were re-examined several years later (1 to 11y) and were normal. We believe that their persistent toe-walking corresponded to a variant of 'transient focal dystonia of infancy'. Knowledge of its existence may justify a period of observation without special investigations, surgery, or casting.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Newman2006a
%A Newman, Christopher J
%A Ziegler, Anne-Lise
%A Jeannet, Pierre-Yves
%A Roulet-Perez, Eliane
%A Deonna, Thierry W
%D 2006
%J Dev Med Child Neurol
%K Adolescent; Age of Onset; Cerebral Palsy; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Diagnosis, Differential; Dystonia; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Foot; Gait Disorders, Neurologic; Humans; Infant; Male; Posture; Remission, Spontaneous; Walking
%N 2
%P 96--102
%R 10.1017/S0012162206000223
%T Transient dystonic toe-walking: differentiation from cerebral palsy and a rare explanation for some unexplained cases of idiopathic toe-walking.
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0012162206000223
%V 48
%X We report on seven children (five males, two females) who presented with marked, often asymmetrical, toe-walking from onset of independent walking, associated with abnormal foot postures and increased tone at the ankles with characteristics of dystonia. Most of the children had presented with unusual pre-walking locomotion and a mild delay in independent walking. They did not fit into the usual categories of 'habitual' toe-walking or congenital short tendo calcaneus but nor did they have the clinical signs of spastic diplegia or of a peripheral neuromuscular disease. Normalization occurred progressively in the second to fourth years of life. The children were re-examined several years later (1 to 11y) and were normal. We believe that their persistent toe-walking corresponded to a variant of 'transient focal dystonia of infancy'. Knowledge of its existence may justify a period of observation without special investigations, surgery, or casting.
@article{Newman2006a,
abstract = {We report on seven children (five males, two females) who presented with marked, often asymmetrical, toe-walking from onset of independent walking, associated with abnormal foot postures and increased tone at the ankles with characteristics of dystonia. Most of the children had presented with unusual pre-walking locomotion and a mild delay in independent walking. They did not fit into the usual categories of 'habitual' toe-walking or congenital short tendo calcaneus but nor did they have the clinical signs of spastic diplegia or of a peripheral neuromuscular disease. Normalization occurred progressively in the second to fourth years of life. The children were re-examined several years later (1 to 11y) and were normal. We believe that their persistent toe-walking corresponded to a variant of 'transient focal dystonia of infancy'. Knowledge of its existence may justify a period of observation without special investigations, surgery, or casting.},
added-at = {2014-07-19T20:54:56.000+0200},
author = {Newman, Christopher J and Ziegler, Anne-Lise and Jeannet, Pierre-Yves and Roulet-Perez, Eliane and Deonna, Thierry W},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/294c4d57a14e2cfee4dcd724678df4e61/ar0berts},
doi = {10.1017/S0012162206000223},
groups = {public},
interhash = {8de93cb77c61de09819ccfe136600c9a},
intrahash = {94c4d57a14e2cfee4dcd724678df4e61},
journal = {Dev Med Child Neurol},
keywords = {Adolescent; Age of Onset; Cerebral Palsy; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Diagnosis, Differential; Dystonia; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Foot; Gait Disorders, Neurologic; Humans; Infant; Male; Posture; Remission, Spontaneous; Walking},
month = Feb,
number = 2,
pages = {96--102},
pii = {S0012162206000223},
pmid = {16417663},
timestamp = {2014-07-19T20:55:05.000+0200},
title = {Transient dystonic toe-walking: differentiation from cerebral palsy and a rare explanation for some unexplained cases of idiopathic toe-walking.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0012162206000223},
username = {ar0berts},
volume = 48,
year = 2006
}