Gait Re-education in Childhood Hemiplegias
摘要
After considering the main walking patterns exposed in literature (Winters et al., Sutherland et al., Boccardi, Becher, Rodda and Graham), re-educational treatment of the four clinical forms described by our group is addressed. Since unlike what happens in tetraplegias and diplegias, all hemiplegic children achieve walking capability and are able to maintain it, this chapter focuses only on manipulation. In this sense, promotion of walking is not advantageous if it can penalize recovery of affected hand. For each form, possible secondary deformities are described. Treatment tools include physiotherapy, orthoses, drugs and functional orthopedic surgery. Natural history can change architecture of gait, for example, the dropped foot of the third form can become a true equinus due to triceps surae retraction. Semiotic maneuvers useful for distinguishing muscle weakness from delay of recruitment, or for differentiating responsibility of different muscles (gastrocnemius from soleus, for example) or for distinguishing a knee extended by simplification from a knee stiffened by co-contraction between hamstrings and quadriceps are described.