Gowers's sign is a medical sign that indicates

weakness Weakness is a symptom of a number of different conditions. The causes are many and can be divided into conditions that have true or perceived muscle weakness. True muscle weakness is a primary symptom of a variety of skeletal muscle diseases, i ...

of the

proximal Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

s, namely those of the

lower limb The human leg, in the general word sense, is the entire lower limb of the human body, including the foot, thigh or sometimes even the hip or gluteal region. However, the definition in human anatomy refers only to the section of the lower limb ext ...

. The sign describes a patient that has to use their hands and arms to "walk" up their own body from a

squatting position Squatting is a versatile posture where the weight of the body is on the feet but the knees and hips are bent. In contrast, sitting involves taking the weight of the body, at least in part, on the buttocks against the ground or a horizontal object. ...

due to lack of hip and thigh muscle strength. It is named after

William Richard Gowers Sir William Richard Gowers (; 20 March 1845 – 4 May 1915) was a British neurologist, described by Macdonald Critchley in 1949 as "probably the greatest clinical neurologist of all time". He practised at the National Hospital for the Paral ...

.W. R. Gowers. A manual of the nervous system. Philadelphia; 2nd edition, volume 1, 1895. __TOC__

Associations

Gowers's sign is classically seen in Duchenne muscular dystrophy where it is mostly evident at 4–6 years, but also presents itself in centronuclear myopathy,

myotonic dystrophy Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is a type of muscular dystrophy, a group of genetic disorders that cause progressive muscle loss and weakness. In DM, muscles are often unable to relax after contraction. Other manifestations may include cataracts, intel ...

and various other conditions associated with proximal muscle weakness, including

Becker muscular dystrophy Becker muscular dystrophy is an X-linked recessive inherited disorder characterized by slowly progressing muscle weakness of the legs and pelvis. It is a type of dystrophinopathy. This is caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, which encodes ...

dermatomyositis Dermatomyositis (DM) is a long-term inflammatory disorder which affects skin and the muscles. Its symptoms are generally a skin rash and worsening muscle weakness over time. These may occur suddenly or develop over months. Other symptoms may inc ...

and

Pompe disease Glycogen storage disease type II, also called Pompe disease, is an autosomal recessive metabolic disorder which damages muscle and nerve cells throughout the body. It is caused by an accumulation of glycogen in the lysosome due to deficiency of th ...

. For this maneuver, the patient is placed on the floor away from any objects that could otherwise be used to pull oneself to a standing position. It is also used in testing paraplegia.

References

Symptoms and signs: musculoskeletal system Muscular dystrophy Symptoms and signs: Nervous system {{med-sign-stub

Associations

See also

References