Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Foot dorsiflexor weakness
Foot drop
HP:0009027
What it means
Weakness of the muscles responsible for dorsiflexion of the foot, that is, of the movement of the toes towards the shin. The foot dorsiflexors include the tibialis anterior, the extensor hallucis longus, the extensor digitorum longus, and the peroneus tertius muscles.
Dorsiflexion of the foot extends the foot superiorly, as if taking the foot off the gas pedal.
Rare diseases that can present with this47
Very common80–99%
5Common30–79%
27- Adenylosuccinate synthetase-like 1-related distal myopathy
- Adult-onset distal myopathy due to VCP mutation
- Alpha-B crystallin-related late-onset myopathy
- Autosomal dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2Y
- Autosomal dominant spastic paraplegia type 17
- Autosomal recessive axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease due to copper metabolism defect
- Autosomal recessive distal nebulin myopathy
- Autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia type 55
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease-deafness-intellectual disability syndrome
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1E
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1F
- Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 4C
- Distal myotilinopathy
- Early-onset progressive encephalopathy-spastic ataxia-distal spinal muscular atrophy syndrome
- Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy
- FLNC-related handgrip and calf weakness-distal myopathy
- Glycogen storage disease with severe cardiomyopathy due to glycogenin deficiency
- Hereditary myopathy with early respiratory failure
- Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type 1
- Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy
- PMP22-RAI1 contiguous gene duplication syndrome
- Spinocerebellar ataxia type 43
- Steinert myotonic dystrophy
- Tibial muscular dystrophy
- Typical nemaline myopathy
- X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2
- X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 3
Sometimes5–29%
14- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- Autosomal dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2Z
- Autosomal dominant spastic paraplegia type 38
- Autosomal recessive axonal neuropathy with neuromyotonia
- Autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay
- Bethlem muscular dystrophy
- Congenital fiber-type disproportion myopathy
- Full NF2-related schwannomatosis
and 6 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Foot extensor weakness · Footdrop · Inability to heel walk · Inability to walk on heels
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.