February 23, 2019

A flexed leg is a shorter leg: When loss of knee extension really matters.

February 23, 2019/ The Gait Guys

A flexed knee is a shorter leg, period.
A knee with any loss of terminal extension, is more bent knee, and thus a shorter leg, period.

Stand up, bend one knee 10 degrees, you have shortened the global top to bottom length of that leg.
So when walking, you will plunk down onto that shorter leg, and there will be a cost.

This is old hat for our long time readers, but it is a good reminder to look for loss of terminal knee extension.

I just saw a lady with a uni-knee replacement of 5 months. Failing some aspects of rehab, they are stuck. There is hip,knee and ankle pain on walking.
She had a loss of terminal knee extension, thus a short leg, true shortness.
I placed a 2mm full sole length rubber-cork lift in the shoe (*DO NOT USE JUST A HEEL LIFT, please, for the love of God and all that is beautiful on this earth stop using just heel lifts and causing plantarflexion at the ankle. Heel lifts are specific unicorns you only use when you are trying to get more plantarflexion at the ankle, or want to rush someone to the forefoot, or want a shorter posterior compartment (amongst other stupid things you probably do not want in your client mechanics)).
She put the shoe back on with the 2mm sole lift in the shoe and walked 20 steps and started to tear up. No pain.

Sometimes things are simple. We more closely restored the leg length by adding more vertical height. Yes, the problem still exists, but its global effects are somewhat muted. She stopped premature heel rise, could feel her glutes, stopped the abrupt plunk onto the leg, *stopped the sudden abrupt knee flexion loading that was crippling her.

I then took it out, "shoe'd" her up again, and she was dumbfounded, all the pain returned as did her awareness of what she was coping with.

Now, sent her away with the sole lift to accommodate for 2 weeks, and we will restart the rehab once things have time to get used to the "new norm". Now the rehab will work, we think. Time will tell

One thing is for sure, and now yesterdays post rings more clear and true, if you build strength on compensation, you earn and own that compensation.

The Gait Guys

#gait, #gaitproblems, #gaitcompensations, #strength, #heellift, #solelift, #TKA, #hippain, #shortleg

Photo courtesy of Pixabay, beautiful photo isn't it !?

August 13, 2016

Podcast 109: A clinical case of a total knee replacement and achilles tendonopathy.

August 13, 2016/ The Gait Guys

Great open clinical discussions today on things we see in the clinic. We start with a great case that opens up the dialogue, a case of a total knee replacement and achilles tendonitis. Hope you will join us on this clinical journey today.

Interested in our store ? Want to buy some of our lectures or our National Shoe Fit program? Click here (thegaitguys.tumblr.com) and you will come to our blog. In the left tab, you will find tabs for STORE, SEMIANRS, BOOK etc. We also lecture every 3rd Wednesday of the month on onlineCE.com. We have an extensive catalogued library of our courses there, you can take them any time for a nominal fee (~$20).

A. Podcast links:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegaitguys/pod_109f.mp3

http://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/podcast-109-a-clinical-case-of-a-total-knee-replacement-and-achilles-tendonopathy

B. iTunes link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gait-guys-podcast/id559864138

C. Gait Guys online /download store (National Shoe Fit Certification & more !)
http://store.payloadz.com/results/results.aspx?m=80204

D. other web based Gait Guys lectures:
Monthly lectures at : www.onlinece.com type in Dr. Waerlop or Dr. Allen, ”Biomechanics”

-Our Book: Pedographs and Gait Analysis and Clinical Case Studies
Electronic copies available here:

-Amazon/Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Pedographs-Gait-Analysis-Clinical-Studies-ebook/dp/B00AC18M3E

-Barnes and Noble / Nook Reader:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pedographs-and-gait-analysis-ivo-waerlop-and-shawn-allen/1112754833?ean=9781466953895

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/pedographs-and-gait-analysis/id554516085?mt=11

-Hardcopy available from our publisher:
http://bookstore.trafford.com/Products/SKU-000155825/Pedographs-and-Gait-Analysis.aspx

Show Notes:

Loose dialogue on Anterior pelvis tilt and training it out

https://www.t-nation.com/training/dont-be-like-donald-duck?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article3173

Ivo put up 2 articles recently on “Why is your muscle tight” and “iliocapsularis” muscle.
Why training the upper body might help integrate arms into gait for sporthttp://thegaitguys.tumblr.com/post/141990433844/gait-and-climbing-and-dns-part-2-introducing

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/publishahead/Influence_of_Step_Rate_on_Shin_Injury_and_Anterior.97596.aspx
- cross over looked at ?- ankle rocker looked at ? endurance of anteiror compt looked at ?

July 14, 2016

Leg length discrepancies and total joint replacments.

July 14, 2016/ The Gait Guys

5mm cut off ? MaybeYou are likely to come across hip and knee arthroplasty clients (total joint replacements). When they take a joint out and replace it with a new one, it can be a true challenge to restore leg lengths to equality side to side. Problems often arise down the road once gait is resumed and rehabilitation is completed. It can take time for the leg length discrepancy (LLD) to begin to create compensatory problems. This article seems to suggest that 5mm is the tipping point where gait changes becoming a problem are founded. Other sources will render different numbers, this article found 5mm. The authors found that both over- and underrestoration of leg length/offset showed similar effects on gait and that Gait analysis was able to assess restoration of biomechanics after hip replacement. I would chose to use the word “change” over restore, since the gait analysis is merely showing the deployed strategies and compensations, never the problem. But it is a tool, and gait analysis can be a decent tool to show “change”.*Remember, it is not always a product of true length, it can come from the pelvis posturing and/or from the acetabular orrientation, which can be a postoperative sequella. One cannot over look acetabular inclination, anteversion and femoral component anteversion/retroversion issues.Just remember, before you start making LLD changes with inserts, cork, orthotics etc be sure that you have restored as best as possible, pelvis-hip-spine mechanics because changes here can reflect as a mere leg length discrepancy. And it goes the other way as well, a LLD can cause those changes above.

* Just use your brain and don’t just lift the heel, give them a full sole lift. Heel lifts for this problem are newbie mistakes. Don’t be a newbie.

- Dr. Shawn Allen

Leg length and offset differences above 5 mm after total hip arthroplasty are associated with altered gait kinematicsTobias Renkawitz, Tim Weber, Silvia Dullien, Michael Woerner, Sebastian Dendorfer, Joachim Grifka,Markus Weber
http://www.gaitposture.com/article/S0966-6362(16)30148-5/abstract?platform=hootsuite

June 30, 2014 June 30, 2014/ The Gait Guys

So a patient presents to your office with a recent history of a L total knee replacement 8 weeks ago AND a recent history of a resurgence of low back pain, supra iliac area on the L side. Hmmmm. Hope the flags went up for you too!

His global lumbar ROM’s were 70/90 flexion with low back discomfort at the lumbo sacral junction, 20/30 extension with lumbosacral discomfort, left lateral bending 10 degrees with increased pain (reproduction); right lateral bending 20 degrees with a pulling sensation on the right. Extension and axial compression of the lumbar spine in left lateral bending reproduced his pain.

Neurologically he had an absent patellar reflex on the left, with diminished sensation over the knee medially and laterally. Muscle strength 5/5 in LE; sl impaired balance in Left single leg standing. There was incomplete extension of the left knee, being at 5 degrees flexion (right side was zero).

He has a right sided leg length deficiency (or a left sided excess!) of 5 mm. Take a look at the tibial lengths in the 1st 3 pictures. See how the left is longer? In the next shot, do you see how the knee cannot completely extend? Can you imagine that the discrepancy would probably be larger if it did?

Now look at the x rays. We drew a line across from the non surgical leg to make things clearer.

Now, think about the mechanics of a longer leg. That leg will usually pronate more in an attempt to shorten the leg, and the opposite side will supinate to attempt to lengthen. Can you see how this would cause clockwise pelvic rotation (in addition to anterior pelvic rotation)? Can you see this patients in the view of the knees from the top? Do you understand that the lumbar spine has very limited rotation (about 5-10 degrees, with more movement superiorly (1) ). Does it make sense that the increased range of motion could effect the disc and facet joints and increase the patients low back pain?

So, how do we fix it? Have you seen the movie “Gattica”? Hmmm….A bit extreme. How about a full length 3mm sole lift to start, along with specific joint manipulation to restore normal motion and some acupuncture to reduce inflammation? We say that is a good start.

The Gait Guys. Increasing your gait literacy with each and every post. If you liked this post, please send it to someone else for them to enjoy and learn.

(1) Three-Dimensional In Vivo Measurement of Lumbar Spine Segmental Motion Ruth S. Ochia, PhD, Nozomu Inoue, MD, PhD, Susan M. Renner, MS, Eric P. Lorenz, MS, Tae-Hong Lim, PhD, Gunnar B. Andersson, J. MD, PhD, Howard S. An, MD Spine. 2006;31(15):2073-2078.