Article

In children with cerebral palsy (CP) analysis of gait asymmetry can provide
insight into the control of walking and may help in guiding the clinician's
treatment decisions. Running is more difficult that walking for the
musculoskeletal system, however, in the literature it has been shown that gait
deviations associated with CP maybe better tolerated during running. This leads
us to the hypothesis that running might increase gait symmetry in patients with
CP. Therefore the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of running
on asymmetries in spatio-temporal, kinematic and kinetic gait parameters for
children with CP. Twenty-four children with diplegia and 25 with hemiplegia were
examined using 3D gait analysis during running and walking. MANOVA on two
factors: diagnosis (hemiplegic, diplegic) and movement (walking, running) was
conducted on a total of 22 gait parameters. The MANOVA revealed a significant
difference in symmetry between walking and running (p<0.001) and between patients
groups (p=0.004). The detailed analysis of gait parameters demonstrated a
significant decrease of symmetry in 13 of the 22 gait parameters investigated,
only symmetry of step time was significantly increased. Therefore the hypothesis
that gait symmetry improved with running in children with CP can be rejected.
Based on the results of this study, asymmetries masked during walking might
appear during running. Therefore, analysis of asymmetry of walking and running
gives a more comprehensive assessment of the gait pathology for clinical decision
making.
CI - Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS