GAIT LABORATORIES

THE ALFRED I. DUPONT INSTITUTE

AND THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE

Gait laboratories are used to measure and study human motion. The application to study sports performance has been widely used. In medicine this technology is used in research to study the effects of medications, therapies, and the outcome of surgical procedures. In the last ten years it has also gained increasing significance as a diagnostic tool or laboratory test to obtain data which helps in planning treatments. This has been especially well developed in planning surgery, bracing and therapy treatments for children with cerebral palsy.

The A. I. duPont Institute is a childrens hospital with a very large population of children with motor disabilities especially Cerebral Palsy. The University of Delaware Sports Science Center has used the gait laboratory for extensive research in the development of new skates, improving baseball pitching, and many field and track events. Although these two laboratories are in separate faciltities, there is extensive cooperation and combined technical development.

The use of the gait laboratory involves the measurement of joint motion, joint forces, muscle activity, foot pressures, and oxygen consumption.

The gait laboratories require multi-disiplinary cooperation between biomechanical engineers, physicians with expertise in human gait treatment, and physical therapists. At this time a multidisaplinary organization is being created and there is a group studing the feasibilty of establishing a clinical diagnostic gait laboratory certification and accredation process.

A major focus of diagnostic laboratories is understanding which patients will gain the most from testing in the gait laboratory. There is also interest in reviewing individual cases so physicains and therapists will be interupting the data in similiar methods. This will also require combining or studing the outcomes of procedures which have been recommended based on gait analysis. Case examples of clincal patients will be presented for education of health care workers and to foster on going discussion in the gait laboratory community.

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