Gait training to improve a bending knee at initial contact and loading response in ataxic hemiparesis

Abstract

Repeated gait training with a flexible knee brace and an oil damper hinged ankle-foot orthosis (GSD, Gaitsolution Design, Kawamura Gishi, Osaka, Japan) improved the gait abnormalities and speed in a stroke patient with ataxic hemiparesis. Here, we report on a female in her 50s with a cerebral infarction in the posterolateral thalamus. She had ataxic hemiparesis in her lower left leg. While walking, her knee was bending at initial contact and loading response due to the ataxic hemiparesis, and her gait speed remained at 52.2 m/min. To reconstruct the inverted pendulum model, we provided gait training with a flexible knee brace and GSD. As a result, her gait abnormalities were resolved and her gait speed improved up to 72.6 m/min. We speculated that the one of the reasons for the improvement in gait speed was the adjustment of the task difficulty to address the gait abnormality due to the ataxic hemiplegia, and repeating gait training with an inverted pendulum model. We concluded that providing repeated gait training with a flexible knee brace and GSD to construct the inverted pendulum model may improve the gait abnormalities and speed in patients with ataxic hemiparesis.