BACKGROUND In children with spastic diplegia, surgery for ankle equinus contracture is associated with a high prevalence of both overcorrection, which may result in a calcaneal deformity and crouch gait, and recurrent equinus contracture, which may require revision surgery. We sought to determine if conservative surgery for equinus gait, in the context of multilevel surgery, could result in the...

Normal gait is a pattern of walking that humans normally adopt in undisturbed situations. Gait patterns are considered to be either abnormal or impaired if they do not satisfy certain key attributes of normal gait. It has previously been postulated that normal gait is more energy efficient than abnormal or impaired gait. However, it is not clear whether a normal gait pattern is also superior to...

Background: Hamstring muscles contracture is a major problem in the management of the cerebral palsy CP patient causing the crouch gait which is one of the most resistant conditions to treat. Methods: Twenty patients (40 knees) with spastic cerebral palsy diaplegia, between 7 – 12 years of age, presented to The National Institute of Neuromotor System of Egypt, from January 2010 to January 2011....

The objective of this study was to identify the predictors of outcome of distal rectus femoris transfer in cerebral palsy. Preoperative and postoperative gait data for 81 patients were examined, focusing on knee flexion/extension range. Outcome was 'good' for 46 patients and 'poor' for 35. The poor outcome group had no improvement in knee range because of increased crouch postoperatively. Outco...

OBJECTIVE To characterize changes in gait by age in patients with Dravet syndrome. DESIGN Prospective, cross-sectional study. SETTING Tertiary children's hospital. PATIENTS Twenty-six subjects with Dravet syndrome, aged 2 to 34 years. Twenty-three patients had mutations of the sodium channel α1 subunit gene, SCN1A. INTERVENTIONS Assessment via video gait analysis, physical examination o...

In hemiplegic gait the paretic lower limb provides less muscle power and shows a briefer stance compared with the unaffected limb. Yet, a longer stance and a higher power can be obtained from the paretic lower limb if gait speed is increased. This supports the existence of a 'learned non-use' phenomenon, similar to that underlying some asymmetric impairments of the motion of the eyes and of the...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to evaluate the outcomes of combined hamstring release and rectus transfer in children with crouch gait using physical examination and gait analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 19 patients (38 knee joints) with crouch were evaluated by static examination and computerized analysis with dynamic EMG. The Ely test was positive together with prolonged and increased act...