Net Center of Pressure Analysis during Gait Initiation in Patient with Hemiplegia

Gait initiation is a transitional process from the balanced upright standing to the beginning of steady-state walking. Steady-state walking represents the start of repeated gait pattern with steady-state walking speed within one gait cycle. Hemiplegic patients' gait initiation was analyzed using the 3D motion analysis system synchronized with 2 force plates. The first vertex(V1) in the CoP trajectory was placed on the lateral-posterior point from the leading limb side, and the third vertex(V3) was placed on the lateral-anterior point from the trailing limb side in the CoP of the normal gait initiation. However, V1 was not nearly shown and V3 was placed on the posterior from the trailing limb side in the CoP of the hemiplegic gait initiation. The time and distance from the onset to the toe-off(P1) and from the toe-off to the initial contact(P2) were analyzed that the mean time was larger and the mean distance was shorter when the affected limb was leading limb. The net CoP data obtained on gait initiation with hemiplegic patients suggest that they compensated with different strategies with respect to the limb whether it was leading limb or trailing limb for their impairment.