Painful legs and moving toes syndrome, it really exist. And it is how it sounds. The legs start burning and aching, and the toes start moving on themselves. It is very uncommon, but it can be found. Neurologists found 14 cases of painful legs and moving toes (PLMT) syndrome out of 4,780 patients with movement disorders diagnosed at Mayo Clinic. So all these patients already suffered from one issue, a movement disorder, like Parkinson's disease or dystonia.

Ages ranged from 25 to 84 years (mean, 69 years). Movements were mostly in both feet. Pain preceding the movements and was most commonly burning. The most common factors of this strange phenomena were neuropathy and radiculopathy, so both disorders of peripheral nerves.

Neurologists think these movements belong to movement disorders we call chorea and dystonia.

This syndrome can best be treated with drugs like benzodiazepines, the so called GABAergic agents. ^[1] Also gabapentin can be use.^[2]

A painless variant of this syndrome is found in a patient due to compression of the spinal cord.^[3] Also a heridary component could underly the painless legs and moving toes syndrome.^[4]

March 2010, Jan M. Keppel Hesselink, MD, PhD , David J. Kopsky, MD

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