Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

The purpose of this study is to assess the basic gait abnormalities of patients operated on by arthrodesis on the hip or in the knee or ankle. In the past 20-30 years joint arthrodesis surgery was a common treatment following poliomelytis, RA, chronic osteomielytis, hip dysplasia (HD), arthrosis, etc. The trials were performed at a self-selected walking speed. The main compensatory mechanisms that were found in hip, knee, and ankle joint arthrodesis patients are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to focus on gait pattern abnormalities in hip-joint arthrodesis patients and correlate them with a normal population similar in age and sex. The importance of a long-term follow-up (in this case, 20 years) is to assess the presence of secondary degenerative arthrosis in joints which are biomechanically and anatomically correlated to the fused hip. It is found that basic gait abnormalities are due to kinematic and kinetic alterations that are the result of compensatory mechanisms used to overcome the lack of hip flexion-extension, ab-adduction and external-internal rotation. The hip-joint arthrodesis patient gait is characterized by an increased sagittal and transverse rotation of the pelvis, increased motion of the sound hip, and a decreased omolateral knee extension during the first part of the stance phase.