A neglected symptom? Parietal gait lateropulsion as primary manifestation of acute is-chemic stroke

Gait disorders are commonly overlooked as a presenting manifestation of stroke and underrepresented in case series. We describe four cases of sudden-onset gait lateropulsion as primary manifestation of parietal lobe stroke.

Four patients presented after sudden-onset gait lateropulsion. On neurological examination, all patients had at least one cortical sensory deficit and wide-based gait with lateropulsion towards the side of the cortical deficit. Neuroimaging revealed a subacute parietal lobe stroke contralateral to the side of gait lateropulsion. In two patients we found bilateral lateropulsion with predominance towards the side of cortical deficit and increase of unsteadiness with eye closure (an apparent Romberg sign), with neuroimaging revealing bilateral parietal strokes (subacute contralateral and chronic ipsilateral to gait lateropulsion).

We report gait lateropulsion as a novel primary manifestation of acute stroke of the parietal lobe (parietal gait lateropulsion). Given its role as the destination of proprioceptive pathways, parietal strokes can result in gait lateropulsion, with bilateral lesions even mimicking sensory ataxia with bilateral lateropulsion and unsteadiness upon eye closure.