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<embedvideo service="youtube" Alignment="right">https://youtu.be/tdseVVgTbG0</embedvideo>The most useful and most often elicited pathologic plantar responses involve extension of the great toe using various methods, most commonly those of Babinski and Chaddock.(1,2) There are other plantar reflexes that emerge in the face of corticospinal tract disease that involve flexion of the toes.
There is a normal plantar muscle reflex consisting of contraction of the toe flexors following sudden stretching. This response is barely, if at all, perceptible normally, but becomes more obvious with reflex hyperactivity, when percussion of various portions of the foot may cause plantar flexion of the toes. The best known of this group of reflexes is Rossolimo’s sign, which is elicited by percussion of the ball of the foot. Normally, the only resulting movement is slight jiggling of the toes from the hammer strike. In the presence of corticospinal tract disease, the percussion may cause flexion, primarily of the small toes.
The video shows Rossolimo’s sign in a patient with spastic paraparesis following an episode of transverse myelitis. The movement is small and recognition requires close observation. There were also very brisk extensor plantar responses.
