Younger Total Knee Replacement Patients Do Not Demonstrate Gait Asymmetry for Heel Strike Transient or Knee Joint Moments that are Observed in Older Patients.

Younger Total Knee Replacement Patients Do Not Demonstrate Gait Asymmetry for Heel Strike Transient or Knee Joint Moments that are Observed in Older Patients. J Appl Biomech. 2018 Dec 11;:1-29 Authors: Street BD, Gage W Abstract Gait asymmetry is observed after total knee replacement (TKR), often leading to excessive forces at the contralateral limb. The number of TKR procedures has increased substantially over the past two decades, particularly among younger patients. Relatively little is known regarding these younger patients (<65 y), specifically, with respect to gait asymmetry. The purpose of this study was to investigate if age affects gait asymmetry after unilateral TKR. Three-dimensional analysis of ten walking trials was collected from the following four groups: younger patient (age: 54.3 ± 7.9 y), younger control (age: 55.2 ± 4.0 y), older patient (age: 76.9 ± 4.7 y), and older control (age: 77.7 ± 4.1 y). The older patients, but not any of the other groups, demonstrated a significantly larger heel strike transient and peak knee adduction moment at the non-surgical compared to the surgical limb. The observed gait pattern of the younger patients resembled that of the younger controls, rather than the older patients. The greater loading of the non-surgical limb for the older patients could contribute to the initiation or further progression of osteoarthritic degeneration in the contralateral knee; these asymmetries were...
Source: Journal of Applied Biomechanics - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: J Appl Biomech Source Type: research