Hereditary spastic paraplegia: report of two siblings

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, characterized by progressive weakness and spasticity of the lower extremities. The first symptom is usually leg stiffness, unstable gait with difficulty in walking. According to the clinical features, hereditary spastic paraplegia can be divided into pure type and complicated type. The mode of hereditary spastic paraplegia can be autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive or X-linked. There have been many loci on chromosomes identified in recent years. We present two Chinese siblings with unstable gait, a 5-year-3-month-old brother and his 3-year-1-month-old sister, who belong to the pure type hereditary spastic paraplegia. Both of them had motor deficit on follow up.