Gait Analysis With Idiopathic Clubfoot Patients Treated by the Ponseti Method: Can Regular Assessment With the GAITRite Walkway Identify Common Gait Changes in Relapsing Patients?

Study Background:

A series of studies have used the GAITRite Electronic Walkway to collect normative data with more than 500 typically developing children between the ages of 1 - 18 years of age. The data was used to produce novel normative gait related percentile charts. These charts provide an immediate reference against which individual scores can be plotted and improvements demonstrated. Their value in the clinical setting was demonstrated by the inclusion of a variety of clinical diagnoses which all have the ability to affect the gait pattern. One clinical group consisted of Ponseti treated Idiopathic Clubfoot patients.

Gait is an important functional milestone for all children, particularly if the child has undergone treatment to produce a functional foot position which will allow them to engage in normal childhood activities with minimal pain and discomfort. Treatment concepts in Clubfoot are centred on non-operative techniques where the outcome is improved by avoiding the scar tissue associated with surgical releases. Gait analysis results at medium and long term intervals support the improved functional ability following non-operative intervention however infrequent analysis has resulted in a lack of longitudinal gait analysis in the Clubfoot population. Such information would give an insight into the development of gait in the presence of a corrected deformity being challenged by the rapid growth of the child.

The gait analysis systems used in many of the published research are complex, expensive and require specialised skills to operate, presenting many barriers to performing regular gait analysis. In contrast, the GAITRite is a relatively inexpensive, portable, child friendly system which allows for frequent gait analysis, producing Temporo-spatial data, easily extracted and interpreted by the clinician. From the longitudinal data we would be able to study the development of gait and pressure patterns within this patient population, investigating whether particular parameters or trends exist that are indicative of relapse in foot posture, aiding early identification and implementation of treatment.

Aims and Objectives: