Effectiveness of instrumented gait analysis in children with cerebral palsy--comparison of outcomes.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of instrumented gait analysis on the walking performance of children with cerebral palsy at The Children's Hospital, Denver. The study population consisted of 2 groups of 10 children; an experimental group (X) and a recommendation matched control group (C). All subjects had 2 instrumented gait analyses at least 1 year apart. Group X was composed of patients who abided by the gait analysis recommendations and completed all surgical interventions. Group C included patients who chose not to follow surgical recommendations from the initial gait analysis but instead pursued alternative nonsurgical treatments. Sagittal and coronal plane kinematic outcomes for each surgical procedure were obtained from comparing sequential instrumented gait analyses, and analyzed using logistic regression. Group X was found to experience a significantly higher percentage of positive outcomes (44%) than Group C (26%). The calculated odds ratio using the Wald test indicated that patients who complied with gait analysis surgical recommendations were 3.68 times more likely to experience a positive outcome than recommendation matched patients who chose not to follow gait analysis recommendations.