Does the gait pathology in scoliotic patients depend on the severity of spine deformity? Preliminary results.

The gait pattern in scoliotic patients differed from the gait pattern of the healthy subjects. The aim of the present paper was to describe the dependence of the gait pathology on the severity of the spinal deformity. Thirty five patients with confirmed scoliosis participated in the study. All patients underwent the clinical examination (X-ray and anthropometric measurements) as well as the objective gait analysis. Based on clinical examination the patients were divided into subgroups according to six different criteria. The gait parameters were compared between these subgroups. Most of the assessed variables do not depend on the clinical variables, describing the severity of the spinal deformity. The two gait parameters which depend on the clinical variables are pelvic obliquity and step length. The results show that the obliquity increases with the Cobb angle. The step length decreases with the increasing Cobb angle and with the sum of angles describing the spinal deformity in sagittal and frontal planes. The evaluation of the gait pattern of scoliotic patients and the establishment of its dependence on the spinal deformity are of importance for the treatment of these subjects.