Functional ambulation is an expected outcome of physical therapy after burn
injuries on the lower extremities. The purpose of this study was to docume
nt temporal and spatial gait parameters of adult patients with the use of t
he GAITRite system (CIR Systems Inc, Clifton, NJ) after the patients were b
urned on their lower extremities and to compare these results with previous
data reported for normal subjects. Twenty-five adults with loner extremity
burns (19 men and 6 women; mean age, 35.6 +/- 8.3 years) were evaluated wi
thin 5 days of discharge from an acute care facility. The GAITRite system,
which consists of an electronic walkway that contains 6 sensor pads encapsu
lated in a rolled-up carpet, was used to collect temporal and spatial varia
bles. The patients walked at their preferred rate of ambulation and complet
ed 2 passes; the 2 passes were then averaged by the software to determine t
he patients' gait parameters. A 2-tailed t test was used for comparison of
the mean values for the patients and the previously published data. The res
ults indicated that for both men and women, cycle time and base of support
were significantly higher (P less than or equal to .01) in the patients wit
h burn injuries than in normal subjects. For men, all of the remaining para
meters were significantly lower(P less than or equal to .01) in the patient
s with burns except stride length, which was not significantly different (P
> .05). For women, stance time as a percentage of the gait cycle and caden
ce, velocity, step length, and stride length, were all significantly lower
(P less than or equal to .01) in the patients with burn injuries, whereas d
ouble support as a percentage of the gait cycle was not significantly diffe
rent (P > .05) between the 2 groups. These results indicate that immediatel
y after an acute care hospitalization, patients with lower extremity burns
have significantly different gait patterns than gender-and age-matched norm
al subjects. Future studies are necessary to determine whether these impair
ments in gait limit the functional abilities of a patient.