Muscle weakness is commonly cited as a cause of crouch gait in individuals with cerebral palsy; however, outcomes after strength training are variable and mechanisms by which muscle weakness may contribute to crouch gait are unclear. Understanding how much muscle strength is required to walk in a crouch gait compared to an unimpaired gait may provide insight into how muscle weakness contributes...

The goals of this study were to determine if the muscle contributions to vertical and fore-aft acceleration of the mass center differ between crouch gait and unimpaired gait and if these muscle contributions change with crouch severity. Examining muscle contributions to mass center acceleration provides insight into the roles of individual muscles during gait and can provide guidance for treatm...

Pathological movement patterns like crouch gait are characterized by abnormal kinematics and muscle activations that alter how muscles support the body weight during walking. Individual muscles are often the target of interventions to improve crouch gait, yet the roles of individual muscles during crouch gait remain unknown. The goal of this study was to examine how muscles contribute to mass c...

Crouch gait, a common walking pattern in individuals with cerebral palsy, is characterized by excessive flexion of the hip and knee. Many subjects with crouch gait experience knee pain, perhaps because of elevated muscle forces and joint loading. The goal of this study was to examine how muscle forces and compressive tibiofemoral force change with the increasing knee flexion associated with cro...

Crouch gait decreases walking efficiency due to the increased knee and hip flexion during the stance phase of gait. Crouch gait is generally considered to be disadvantageous for children with cerebral palsy; however, a crouched posture may allow biomechanical advantages that lead some children to adopt a crouch gait. To investigate one possible advantage of crouch gait, a musculoskeletal model ...

We studied the prevalence of severe crouch gait over a 15-year period in a defined population of children with spastic diplegia and Gross Motor Function Classification System levels II and III, to determine if there had been a decrease following changes to the management of equinus gait. These changes were replacing observational with three-dimensional gait analysis, replacing single level with...

Introduction Crouch gait is a well known pathological gait pattern that is often present in diplegic children with a cerebral palsy, eg. [1]. Though the effect of crouch gait on muscle length and interventions at the muscular level on the crouch position are well studied [2,3], it is not known how changes in muscle kinetics are related to the changed posture and mechanisms of propulsion. Howeve...

The purpose of this study was to explore how origin-insertion length and lengthening velocity of hamstring and psoas muscle change as a result of crouch gait. The second purpose was to study the effect of changes in walking speed, in crouch, on muscle lengths and velocities. Eight healthy female subjects walked on a treadmill both normally and in crouch. In the crouch condition, subjects walked...

Crouch gait, a common condition among children with cerebral palsy, decreases walking efficiency due to the increased knee and hip flexion during the stance phase of gait [1]. Excessive knee flexion during walking deteriorates joints and leads to chronic knee pain [2], and if untreated, these symptoms can worsen over time [3]. Several factors have been linked with crouch gait, including muscle ...

Patella alta is common in cerebral palsy, especially in patients with crouch gait. Correction of patella alta has been advocated in the treatment of crouch, however the appropriate degree of correction and the implications for knee extensor function remain unclear. Therefore, the goal of this study was to assess the impact of patellar position on quadriceps and patellar tendon forces during nor...