Retro-pulsion
Historical document, translated for reference. It reflects medical knowledge of the 1920s–30s and is not medical advice.
Summary
Retro-pulsion is a symptom characterized by a distinctive walking abnormality where patients cannot stop walking backward when commanded to do so, often accelerating until they encounter an obstacle or fall. This condition results from damage to the extrapyramidal system, affecting the ability to quickly transition muscle states between contraction and relaxation.
Encyclopedia article (1928–1936)
RETROPULSION (from Latin retro- backward and pellere- to push), a symptom characterized by a peculiar change in gait: when the patient, after being ordered to walk backward and then immediately to stop on command, cannot execute this command—as if something is pushing him in the direction of movement, he gradually accelerates his steps and stops only when hindered by some obstacle. Sometimes, after taking several steps and continuously accelerating his pace, he falls. The cause of this involuntary backward inclination of the body is the same mechanism that operates in pro- and lateropulsion. Its basis lies in damage to the extrapyramidal system. The patient is unable to quickly bring the voluntary muscles, which are at rest or in a state of tonic tension, into a state of contraction, resp. relaxation, resulting in the inability to timely halt the initiated movement. This symptom occurs in paralysis agitans (see) and in parkinsonism (see).
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Cite this page
“Retro-pulsion.” Soviet Medical Encyclopedia. English translation of Bolshaya Meditsinskaya Entsiklopediya, 1st ed. (Moscow, 1928–1936), ed. N. A. Semashko. https://sovietmedicalencyclopedia.pages.dev/article/retro-pulsion/