The Relationship between Weight-Bearing and Stiff-Knee Gait in Hemiplegic Patients

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether insufficient weight-bearing on the hemiparetic side has a correlation with the degree of stiff-knee gait in hemiplegic patients. METHOD: Fifty hemiplegic patients were included. In all patients, 3-dimensonal gait analysis and static and dynamic foot pressure measurements were taken. The degree of stiff-knee gait was evaluated using the peak knee flexion angle and the knee flexion slope at toe-off in hemiplegic limb. The degree of weight-bearing was evaluated using the percentage of hemiplegic foot pressure and pressure-time integration on the non-hemiplegic side. RESULTS: The static and dynamic mean pressure ratios and pressure-time integration ratio were statistically correlated with peak knee flexion angle and knee flexion slope (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: As a result, insufficient weight-bearing had a correlation with the degree of stiff-knee gait in hemiplegic patients. Insufficient weight-bearing should be further investigated to determine whether it is one of the characteristic findings of stiff-knee gait, or another cause of stiff-knee gait.