Very short-term effect of brace wearing on gait in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis girls

Abstract

Bracing changed neither the oxygen consumption nor the timing of the lumbo-pelvic muscles activity in both groups during gait. However, in brace the timing activity of bilateral gluteus medius muscles tended to decrease in AIS patients and increase in healthy subjects. Moreover, braced AIS patients had more restricted frontal hips and shoulder motion as well as pelvis rotation than braced healthy subjects.

Efficacy of corrective spinal orthoses on gait and energy consumption in scoliosis subjects: a literature review

“…[32,35,40] With respect to the evaluation of stride length in AIS subjects wearing a brace, some studies reported an increase in stride length in the AIS subjects, [36,37] while others reported no difference between the AIS subjects wearing brace and those without the brace. [30,39] In addition, Kaviani et al [37] showed an 11% increase in stride length in patients who used Milwaukee orthosis compared with those without orthosis (1.39 versus 1.26 m). In a clinical prospective study evaluating the immediate and long-term effects of orthosis, Mahaudens et al [36] demonstrated that after 6 months of orthotic treatment, in an out-brace situation, the stride length was found to be increased by 5% compared with those without brace (without brace: 1.28 m; with brace: 1.38 m).…”

“…[31] Studies have shown that there is no significant difference between the walking speeds between scoliotic patients and normal subjects. [15,[32][33][34][35] Mahaudens et al [30,36] reported the walking speed in km/h, which was not precise enough to be used for characterizing human gait. Kaviani et al [37] and Karimi et al [38] detected a significant decrease in the walking speeds of subjects with AIS (Milwaukee orthosis: 1.4 m/s) versus no orthosis conditions (1.32 m/s).…”

“…[7,15,28] Some studies have suggested that AIS trunk bracing induced gait deviations by reducing trunk, pelvic, and hip movement. [25,29,30] To the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive review in this regard. Therefore, the purpose of this review article was to assess the papers that measured gait parameters in AIS subjects and to evaluate temporal spatial, kinetics, kinematics, and energy cost for people with AIS when wearing spinal orthoses.…”

“…[37,38] Similarly, no cadence differences were reported between thoracolumbosacral orthosis (TLSO) and no orthosis conditions. [30] It was noted that the cadence asymmetry was reduced when using an orthosis. [39] Stride length…”

“…However, the comparison of the immediate in-brace and out-brace situations revealed no significant changes in the length step (without brace: 1.38 m; with brace: 1.40 m). [30] Step width…”