Gaits

Question 1

What gait is characteristic of posterior column disease and results from the loss of proprioceptive sense in the extremities?

Answer 1

Tabetic or Ataxic gait

Question 2

Patients walking on a wide base, slapping their feet, and usually watch their legs so they know where they are. Is much worse in the dark or with the eyes closed. Uneven spacing of steps, tottering, and swaying occurs, usually with deviatino to one side or the other describes what type of gait?

Answer 2

Tabetic or Ataxic Gait

Question 3

The affected leg is rigid and is swung from the hip in a semicircle by movements of the trunk, what type of gait is this?

Answer 3

Hemiplegic gait

Question 4

The patient leans to the affected side, and the arm on that side is held in a rigid, semiflexed position. The affected spastic limb is moved forward with difficulty because of impaired joint mobility. The toes tend to be forced down, so that abduction and circumduction of the limb are necessary to move it forward. What type of gait is this?

Answer 4

Hemiplegic gait

Question 5

This gait is characteristic of spastic paraplegia. Legs are adducted, crossing alternately in front of one another with the knees scraping together. Steps are short and progression is . Both limbs are spastic. The lower extremities are moved forwardin a stiff, jerky manner, often accompanied by pronounced compensatory motions of the trunk and upper extremities?

Answer 5

Scissors gait

Question 6

Drunken or staggering gait seen in acute alcoholism may also result from what?

Answer 6

1. drug poisoning
2. multiple neuritis
3. brain tumors
4. MS
5. general paresis

Question 7

Waddling or clumsy gait results from what?

Answer 7

dislocated hips or muscular dystrophies with weakness of the hips

Question 8

What type of gait draws the trunk muscles into play, so that the patient rolls from side to side. Weakness of the trunk and pelvic girdle muscles produces pelvic tilt.

Answer 8

Waddling or clumsy gait

Question 9

What does the waddle in waddling or clumsy gait result from?

Answer 9

difficulty in maintaining the pelvis at a proper angle to the weight-bearing extremity, with slump of the pelvis towards the non-weight bearing side, which in turn produces exaggerated compensatory sway of the trunk toward the weight bearing side.

Question 10

What is muscular dystrophy characterized by?

Answer 10

weakness of trunk and pelvic girdle muscles, producing swaybacked potbellied posture and waddling gait

Question 11

What is steppage gait or “footdrop gait” characterized by?

Answer 11

high knee action and flopping of the feet (or foot)

Question 12

With what type of gait do the toes tend to drag along the floor even when the leg is raised?

Answer 12

steppage gait

Question 13

Why does steppage gait occur, do to what?

Answer 13

paralysis of the anterior tibial group of muscles, as in:

1. alcoholic neuritis
2. peroneal nerve injury
3. poliomyelitis
4. progressive muscular atrophy

Question 14

Which gait may resemble that of a high-stepping horse?

Answer 14

steppage gait

Question 15

Which gait is characterized by marked irregulatity and unsteadiness associated with vertigo and a tendency to reel to one side?

Answer 15

Cerebellar gait or ataxia

Question 16

With what gait do the lower extremities appear loose, and the advancing limb starts slowly yet it is unexpectedly, erratically, and vigorously flung forward and lands with a stamp on the floor. This gait is wide-based, irregular, reeling, or deviated, with staggering on turning.

Answer 16

Cerebellar gait or ataxia

Question 17

Which gait is characterized by a forward-leaning posture and short suffling steps, beginning slowly at first and becoming more rapid (“marche a petits pas”)?

Answer 17

Propulsion or festination gait or “paralysis agitans”

Question 18

Patients with the classic features of what have a stooped posture, take short steps, and frequently accelerate rapidly, so that they appear to be chasing their center of gravity?

Answer 18

Propulsion or Festination Gait