Steppage gait is a way of walking in which the leg is lifted higher than usual so the toes can clear the ground. It develops when a person cannot lift the front of the foot, a movement called dorsiflexion, and compensates by bending the hip and knee to raise the whole leg. It is the walking pattern produced by foot drop, and it is very common in CMT because of how the disease weakens the muscles that lift the foot. The foot often lands with a slap, and the raised tripping risk is why devices like an AFO are frequently used.
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.
