Abstract
To study the recovery of walking in an 85 year old man who had right hemiplegia after suffering a cerebral infarction, electromyograms (EMGs) were recorded from his leg muscles. We used signs for instability that we derived from EMG patterns seen in the developmental process of normal infants. The myoelectric activity at one month after the stroke showed many patterns indicative of unstable walking, closely resembling activity patterns seen in very unstable independent gait of a one year old baby in the first month of learning to walk. Seven months later, these patterns indicating unstable gait tended to have decreased or disappeared, although some marked activity betraying instability still remained. However, when the patient walked with the support of a hand cart and was able to hold his trunk upright, these excessive muscular activities decreased or disappeared, closely resembling the stable adult walking pattern. We recommend further study of the evaluation of recovery of walking after stroke by comparing the patient’s EMG patterns to those not only of normal adult human gait, but also of the development of human walking in early childhood.
