Evolution of gait asymmetry during body-weight supported treadmill therapy

General Surgery Reports

Miloslav Kubíček¹, Tomáš Brožek²

¹Director of Military rehabilitation center in Slapy, Slapy nad Vltavou, Czech Republic

²Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Prague, Charles University, Czech Republic and Military rehabilitation center in Slapy, Slapy nad Vltavou, Czech Republic, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT

Patients recovering from surgery of the locomotor system as a result of compensation to avoid pain in the impaired segment exhibit signs of gait asymmetry up to 2 years after the procedure. An early and properly designed gait retraining protocol is key in restoring the symmetry gait pattern and returning to daily activities.

Four patients after common orthopedic surgery (total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and tibial fracture allowed by fasciotomy) completed 6 BWSTT sessions followed by conventional rehabilitation. The evolution of the symmetry index for the parameters stance time, step length, step time, swing time and weight-bearing proportion was evaluated.

An improvement in gait asymmetry was reported during the study course in all participating patients. A patient recovering from a tibial fracture complicated by compartment syndrome with the need for fasciotomy saw an improvement in all measured parameters except for swing time. On the contrary, the patient after ACL reconstruction experienced the greatest progress - an almost complete symmetry restoration was observed in most gait parameters during only 6 sessions.

The results of the present case series study indicate that BWSTT therapy can lead to improvement and almost complete restoration of various gait parameters symmetry in patients after common lower limb surgeries.

Read the entire study here.

Check the technology used here: R-Force