Here is my clinical viewpoint about the case of the week:
1. The lateral trunk movement decreases the moment arm for the
gluteus medius
and allows it to operate more efficiently in its compromised (painful)
state.
2. The right arm goes up because so much of her body mass
is going to the
left with the trunk lean, if something doesn't go up on the right side,
she
will fall.
3. The knee angle remains constant because she is not getting
terminal knee
extension (my interpretation of the EMG data seems to support
this
observation)....try walking without terminal swing phase...
I walked with a
constant knee angle, too! It might decrease forward momentum
and thus
eliminate knee extension in terminal stance on the opposite side.
4. As a clinician, I see her gait deviations as a very good
strategy to
minimize the forces on the surgical side, and maximize her ability
to get from
point A to point B without falling. I realize this is rather
simplistic, but
patients are very goal oriented....they get the job done via the path
of least
resistance.....minimizing pain, muscle force, moment arms, etc.
5. Intervention: For strength: I would focus on lots of closed
chain, forced-
use activities for her left lower extremity. She needs
to be able to deal
with her body weight, so why not use it as the resistance. It
is possible to
scale task difficulty so that she is successful with the forced use
activities. Intervention needs to help her overcome any fears
she might have
of falling when she walks more dynamically--more forward momentum
vs. lateral
momentum. This can be accomplished with the task scaling and some clinical
creativity. For ROM: I would use soft tissue and or
joint mobilization
techniques as appropriate to increase ROM and decrease pain
(if needed).
6. I would happily elaborate more on the clinical intervention
if anyone
wants more detail.
Melanie Weller MPT