Article

Degenerative spinal conditions often result in positive sagittal
alignment which may be corrected using multi-segment spinal reconstructive
surgeries. The purpose of this study was to investigate gait kinematics before
and after spinal reconstructive surgery in persons with positive sagittal alignment. METHODS: Subjects presenting with positive sagittal alignment of
greater than or equal to 7 cm who were treated with spinal reconstructive surgery
were included in this study. Gait analyses were conducted pre- and 6 months
post-operatively. Data were collected while subjects stood quietly for 20s and
walked at their normal self-selected walking speed. RESULTS: For 12 subjects,
sagittal spine alignment during standing and walking was significantly decreased
post-operatively (p<0.0001 for standing and p<0.0005 for walking). Prior to
surgery, the subjects appeared to adopt a crouch gait with the knee flexion angle
at mid terminal stance decreasing significantly after surgery (p<0.0 for the
dominant lower limb and p<0.0 for the non-dominant lower limb). Additionally,
dominant step length (p<0.003) and non-dominant step length (p<0.001) increased
significantly after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Positive sagittal alignment resulted in
crouch gait, which was resolved after multi-segment reconstructive spinal surgery
that improved sagittal spinal alignment. Step and stride lengths also improved
after surgical correction of the sagittal alignment.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS