Lhermitte's sign
Signo de Lhermitte
- Date
- 1917 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- Pierre Marie
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
An uncomfortable electric-shock sensation running down the back and into the limbs on neck flexion, a neurological sign associated with damage to the spinal cord's posterior columns, described by Pierre Marie and Charles Chatelin in 1917.
The sign is named after Jean Lhermitte, who popularized and studied it from the 1920s onward, although the first description is credited to Pierre Marie and Charles Chatelin in 1917.
What it led to
- Clinical use as an indicator of demyelinating spinal cord involvement (e.g. multiple sclerosis)
- Incorporation into standard neurological examination
- Study of the pathophysiology of the spinal cord's posterior columns