Charcot foot (shar-KOH), or Charcot neuroarthropathy (noo-ro-ar-THROP-ah-thee), is a destructive disease of the bones and joints of the foot driven by the loss of protective pain sensation. When that sensation is gone, small repeated injuries go unfelt, and the bones can fracture and the joints collapse, sometimes caving the arch into a rocker-bottom shape. It is often confused with the CMT foot, but the two are entirely different: the CMT foot (cavovarus) is a high, rigid, structurally intact deformity built by muscle imbalance, while Charcot foot is bone destruction built by sensory loss. It can occur in CMT, but it is rare, and it is far more common in diabetes. It shares the CMT name only because Jean-Martin Charcot described both. Knowing the term matters mainly so it is not mistaken for the usual CMT foot: a hot, swollen foot in anyone with neuropathy deserves prompt evaluation.
A Name That Does Too Much Work
Jean-Martin Charcot's name appears throughout medicine, but nowhere does it create more confusion than in the foot. Learn why the CMT foot and Charcot neuroarthropathy, also known as Charcot foot, share a name yet differ in how they develop, appear, and are managed.
