Gait Deviations Flashcards
What are some of the gait deviations that occur during stance phase?
- foot slap (drop)
- Trendelenburg
- vaulting
What is foot slap caused by?
weak anterior tibialis (eccentric DF control)
What is Trendelenburg caused by?
weak contralateral hip ABD
How do pts compensate for Trendelenburg?
- ipsilateral trunk lean/lateral flexion
- slight circumduction on contralateral limb (abn swing phase)
What are good strengthening exercises for Trendelenburg gait?
hip hikes
LEFT Trendelenburg is caused by:
RIGHT weak hip abd
LEFT Trendelenburg leans to:
left side
Why does vaulting happen?
unable to clear the contralateral leg
Potential causes for vaulting
- huge leg length discrepancy
- foot drop
- locking out joint immobilizer or KAFO
How is gait altered with a patient who vaults?
no swing phase on that limb
What are some gait deviations that occur in the swing phase?
- circumduction
- steppage
- scissoring
- crouched gait
- antalgic gait
Circumduction is used if a patient doesn’t want to/can’t ____ the knee
flex
causes of circumduction gait
- weak knee flexors
- OA
- ankle that stays in PF (fused)
- pain in knee » decreased ROM
- fused knee and don’t want to vault
Which population often uses circumduction gait?
geri-ortho (pain)
What does contact and swing look like with circumduction gait?
- foot flat in contact
- swing leg around and land
What is steppage gait?
- affected limb has excessive hip/knee flexion
- foot stomps as it lands
- you will hear this patient coming
causes for steppage gait
- foot drop
- weak dorsiflexors
Impact of steppage on gait
abnormal initial contact
What is scissoring caused by?
- spasticity
- CP, Parkinson’s, TBI, stroke, etc.
- neurological issue
What does scissoring look like?
- unweighted leg comes up across midline
- tonal issue of hip abductors
PT for scissoring
- facilitate with landing properly
- visual cues
- etc.
What is crouched gait?
- t-rex
- excessive knee flexion and DF
- sometimes excessive hip flexion
Major problem with crouched gait
- never get any momentum or extension to rest muscle
- always firing to get limbs moving
- eccentric firing to keep from falling down
Crouched gait is a problem of both of theses
- swing
- stance
