KINETIC ANALYSIS OF WALKING GAIT WITH AND WITHOUT ORTHOTICS: A CASE STUDY

Megan Black, Adam Bruenger, Stacey LaDrig, and Dr. Dianne Ulibarri

Walking gait is a part of daily life for most individuals and factors such as the forces created during gait can affect a person on a daily basis. Orthotics are often prescribed to correct/alleviate problems affecting gait.

PURPOSE: To perform a bilateral analysis of forces during walking with and without the use of orthotics.

METHODS: The participant was a 22 year old female, using a ¾ length soft orthotic and a 3mm lift in her left shoe. The Arial Performance Analysis System (APAS) was used to collect both kinetic and kinematic data and an AMTI forceplate was used to collect forces and moments. A total of 12 trials were taken; six left foot and six right foot strikes; three trials with and three without orthotics per side.

RESULTS: The findings in the vertical ground reaction forces provided evidence that the subject vaulted over her left knee during the no orthotic condition, and a greater unloading of forces than typical was exhibited during midstance. It was found that in the anterior/posterior forces the participant delayed getting into acceleration on the left foot and delayed starting acceleration on the right foot. Several changes in direction of forces during deceleration on the left foot no orthotic condition were also found.

CONCLUSIONS: A biodynamic study should be done to determine the cause of the abnormalities seen. Moreover, it is important that instrumentation be used whenever analyzing gait to detect occurrences that can not be seen by the naked eye.