Article

The addition of load on the non-paretic lower limb for the purpose of restraining
this limb and stimulating the use of the paretic limb has been suggested to
improve hemiparetic gait. However, the results are conflicting and only
short-term effects have been observed. This study aims to investigate the effects
of adding load on non-paretic lower limb during treadmill gait training as a
multisession intervention on kinematic gait parameters after stroke. With this
aim, 38 subacute stroke patients (mean time since stroke :
4.5 months) were
randomly divided into two groups: treadmill training with load (equivalent to 5%
of body weight) on the non-paretic ankle (experimental group) and treadmill
training without load (control group). Both groups performed treadmill training
during 30min per day, for two consecutive weeks (nine sessions). Spatiotemporal
and angular gait parameters were assessed by a motion system analysis at
baseline, post-training (at the end of 9days of interventions) and follow-up
(40days after the end of interventions). Several post-training effects were
demonstrated: patients walked faster and with longer paretic and non-paretic
steps compared to baseline, and maintained these gains at follow-up. In addition,
patients exhibited greater hip and knee joint excursion in both limbs at
post-training, while maintaining most of these benefits at follow-up. All these
improvements were observed in both groups. Although the proposal gait training
program has provided better gait parameters for these subacute stroke patients,
our data indicate that load addition used as a restraint may not provide
additional benefits to gait training.
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Langue : ANGLAIS