Article

Multilevel surgery is commonly performed to improve walking in children with
cerebral palsy (CP). Classical gait analysis (kinetics, kinematics) demonstrated
positive outcomes after this intervention, however it doesn't give global
indication about gait's features.
The assessment of energy cost and mechanical
work of locomotion can provide an overall description of walking functionality.
Therefore, we propose to describe the effects of multilevel surgery in children
with CP, considering energetics, mechanical work, kinetic and kinematic of
walking. We measured external, internal, total work, energy cost, recovery,
efficiency, kinetic and kinematic of walking in 10 children with CP (4 girls, 6
boys; 13 years +/- 2) before and 1 year after multilevel surgery. Kinetic and
kinematic results are partially comparable to previous findings, energy cost of
walking is significantly reduced (p < 0.05); external, internal, total work,
recovery, efficiency are not significantly different (p = 0.129; p = 0.147; p =
0.795; p = 0.119; p = 0.21).
The improvement of the walking's energy consumption
is not accompanied by a corresponding improvement of mechanical work. Therefore
it is conceivable that the improvement of walking economy depend on a reduced
effort of the muscle to maintain the posture, rather then to an improvement of
the mechanism of energy recovery typical of human locomotion.
CI - Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS