Parkinson’s disease and focal limb dystonia are neurological movement disorders that may occur co-morbidly, often leading to more severe gait impairment and pain. Treatment options for foot dystonia in Parkinson’s disease are limited and have variable outcomes. Osteopathic manual treatment techniques were previously found to improve gait in Parkinson’s disease. Here, we present three cases in which osteopathic manual treatment was used to treat foot dystonia in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
The most prominent features of the foot dystonia were cramping and pain in the foot and ankle radiating up to the ipsilateral torso and involuntary foot inversion. The common musculoskeletal dysfunctions found were spasm of ipsilateral hip adductor muscles, psoas, gastrocnemius, and one or more intrinsic ankle and foot muscles as well as calcaneal inversion and restrictions to motion of the tarsal bones. All patients reported improvement in pain and mobility following treatment that lasted five to seven days. Future research is necessary to define and test the effectiveness of a specific treatment protocol in the long term management.
