Painless Footdrop in a Child with Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Case Report.

Diabetic neuropathy is a major cause of morbidity among diabetics, usually affecting patients with long-standing diabetes and advancing age. We present a case of atypical first clinical presentation of diabetes mellitus type 1 in a pediatric patient. A 15-year-old male patient presented to the Emergency department with complaints of right foot weakness associated with mild paresthesia of 1-week duration. There were complaints of polyuria, polydipsia and weight loss in the same timeframe. On subsequent examination, the patient exhibited signs of right-sided foot drop with weak ankle dorsiflexion and eversion accompanied by impaired sensation over the dorsum of the right foot. Lab results confirmed a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus type 1 and the patient was started on subcutaneous insulin injections. The patient's foot drop recovered within 1 month of insulin initiation. This case highlights that Type 1 diabetes mellitus can present atypically as acute onset neuropathy in pediatric patients, making it an important differential diagnosis.

Citation

Maryam Jafari, Ahmedyar Hasan, Jessie Joseph, Manal Mustafa, Samar AlMuntaser. Painless Footdrop in a Child with Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Case Report. Journal of clinical research in pediatric endocrinology. 2022 Dec 13

PMID: 36511459

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