Effect of Drop Foot on Spatiotemporal, Kinematic, and Kinetic Parameters during Gait

Abstract

Background. The complexity of the structure and function of a living body can be affected by disorders and can cause various dysfunctions. Objective. The aim of this study was to determine compensatory mechanisms in subjects with drop foot during gait. Methods. The study evaluated 10 subjects with drop foot (DF) whose results were compared to a group of 10 healthy controls (C). Spatiotemporal, kinematic, and kinetic parameters during the gait cycle were collected using Vicon system synchronized with Kistler platforms. Results. Spatiotemporal, kinematic, and kinetic parameters were significantly different between the analysed groups. In the DF group, the subjects walked almost 47% slower and performed 60% less steps per minute compared to the C group. The main problem in the DF group was insufficient ankle dorsiflexion in the 0–10% of the gait cycle. Mean values in the groups during the first 10% of the gait cycle were as follows: DF (−10.42 ± 5.7°) and C (−2.37 ± 1.47°), which affected the substantial differences in the values of muscle torque: DF (0.2 ± 0.1 Nm/kg) and C (−0.26 ± 0.06 Nm/kg). Conclusions. Comparative analysis for joint angles and torques demonstrated that the mechanism of compensation is the most noticeable in the knee joint and less in the hip joint.

Conditioning Electrical Stimulation Accelerates Regeneration in Nerve Transfers

“…23 Furthermore, patients with foot drop have a near 50% decrease in walking speed. 23 Animals with a foot drop developed a decrease in speed and a loss of dorsiflexion during both stance and swing phases, resulting in a similar unstable steppage gait, 10 demonstrating that the rat is an adequate model to mimic human foot drop and test perioperative interventions to enhance outcomes.…”

A new strength assessment to evaluate the association between muscle weakness and gait pathology in children with cerebral palsy

“…Muscle weakness of the plantar- and dorsiflexors was related to a decreased and delayed knee flexion angle during swing (respectively). Dorsiflexion weakness has been associated with a decreased dorsiflexion angle in swing, and in order maintain foot clearance and avoid tripping (or falling), an increased and prolonged knee flexion is often observed during swing phase [ 41 ]. This might explain the moderate correlation between dorsiflexion weakness and delayed knee flexion in swing found in the current study.…”

Method for Estimating Temporal Gait Parameters Concerning Bilateral Lower Limbs of Healthy Subjects Using a Single In-Shoe Motion Sensor through a Gait Event Detection Approach

“…OHS detection strongly depends on the knee flexion that passively results from the combined motion of hip flexion and ankle plantarflexion before TO, and OTO detection strongly depends on dorsiflexion motion and the heel rocker function [ 17 , 28 ]. However, if we expand our method to medical applications in the future, we must address another issue: the substantial motions required for OHS and OTO detection are significantly weakened in subjects with ankle osteoarthritis [ 43 ], subjects with drop foot induced by tibialis anterior and fibula muscle weakness [ 44 ], and hemiplegic subjects [ 45 ]. Accordingly, our method may be difficult to apply in such cases, or it may show a significant decrease in precision.…”