Heavy metal curse: A task-specific dystonia in the proximal lower limb of a professional percussionist

Task-specific musician's dystonia is highly disabling and mostly affects the upper limb or the embouchure. In a recent paper, lower limb dystonia was reported in a drummer, although no details were given as to its phenomenology and electromyography (EMG). In this paper, we report on the case of a 28-year-old drummer with a task-specific dystonia of the right thigh and describe the phenomenology of the dystonia, the EMG recording, and treatment. Furthermore, we discuss stiff leg syndrome and paroxysmal exercise-induced dystonia as two important differential diagnoses.