MEDICAL DICTIONARY
Lhermitte sign: Sudden transient electric-like shocks extending down the spine triggered by flexing the head forward. Due to a disorder such as compression of the cervical spine (the portion of the spinal cord within the neck).
One patient who experienced Lhermitte sign wrote that: "Looking down to sign a hotel register, I felt a spasm like an electric current move along my back from the base of my skull to my toes. Every time I repeated the movement, the spasm recurred."
The causes of Lhermitte sign include multiple sclerosis (MS) , radiation damage to the spinal cord), cervical spondylosis (degeneration of the disc spaces between the vertebrae), herniation of a cervical disc , a cervical spinal cord tumor, and subacute combined degeneration (caused by vitamin B12 deficiency).
Shocks radiating up the spine are sometimes referred to a reverse Lhermitte sign.
The sign is named for a French neurologist, Jean Lhermitte (1877-1959) who originally described it in a patient with multiple sclerosis (MS). It is a classic sign of MS.
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