THE USE OF GAIT ANALYSIS AND DYNAMIC EMG IN THE ASSESSMENT OF THE CHILD WITH CEREBRAL-PALSY

The use of clinical gait analysis has had its greatest impact in the area of cerebral palsy. Within the last 10 years the surgical treatment of the child with cerebral palsy has progressed from staged, single-joint procedures, to simultaneous bony and soft tissue corrections. This current scheme of treating multiple joint levels and planes of dysfunction is possible only when scientific evaluation can separate primary deformities from secondary compensations. Currently, preoperative and postoperative gait analyses provide the orthopaedic surgeon with data from which neurologic patterns can be determined and various surgical protocols be designed and assessed.