Gait variables of patients after lower extremity burn injuries

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.