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Bilateral symmetry in leg and joint stiffness in children with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy during gait
Author(s) -
Huang HsingPo,
Kuo ChienChung,
Lu TungWu,
Wu KuanWen,
Kuo Ken N.,
Wang TingMing
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of orthopaedic research®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.041
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1554-527X
pISSN - 0736-0266
DOI - 10.1002/jor.24635
Subject(s) - gait , cerebral palsy , physical medicine and rehabilitation , kinematics , spastic , gait analysis , spastic cerebral palsy , medicine , gait cycle , physical therapy , psychology , physics , classical mechanics
Abstract Deviations are often identified at individual joints in the gait analysis of patients with cerebral palsy. Previous gait studies on hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) have focused mainly on deviations of the affected side. The current study aimed to quantify and compare the joint and leg stiffness, the contributions of skeletal and muscular components, and the associated joint angles and moments of the affected and nonaffected lower limbs during level walking in children with spastic HCP. A total of 12 children with spastic HCP and 12 healthy controls walked at a self‐selected speed in a gait laboratory while their kinematic and forceplate data were measured and analyzed during loading response, midstance, terminal stance, and preswing. The altered joint kinematics and kinetics in the nonaffected limb in the HCP group appeared to be mainly a compensatory strategy to minimize the bilateral asymmetry in leg stiffness during the double‐limb support phase and joint stiffness during the entire stance phase. The current results suggest that therapeutic planning and decision‐making for children with HCP should consider not only the mechanics of the affected side but also the control of the nonaffected side.