Abnormal gait can result from diseases, injuries, or congenital deformities, affecting a person’s mobility and increasing the risk of falls. Gaits vary, and what is normal depends on factors such as age, height, and gender. Pain can cause an antalgic gait, resulting in a limp, while neurological conditions can cause a Parkinsonian or scissor gait. Ataxia can cause an unsteady or magnetic gait.
An abnormal gait is an abnormality in the way a person walks or runs. It is a common symptom of diseases and disorders affecting the nervous system, muscles or bones. It can also be the result of injuries or congenital deformities in the feet, legs, or hips. In severe cases, an abnormal gait can significantly impair a person’s mobility or put them at greater risk of injury from falls.
Gaits vary based on factors such as the speed and pace of a person’s steps; how a person’s legs and feet bend as they move; and how his feet strike the ground with each step, called a foot strike. Gait also includes how parts of the upper body, such as the arms, shoulders, and chest, move in sync with the legs as a person walks. What constitutes a normal gait is not the same for every person and varies based on factors such as height, age and gender. Abnormal gaits can take many different forms depending on their causes.
Gait abnormalities caused by pain often result in an antalgic gait. In an antalgic gait, a person spends less time than normal in what’s called the stance phase, the point between strides when both feet are on the ground. This allows the person to minimize the pressure placed on a damaged leg by keeping it as far off the ground as possible.
An antalgic gait often results in a limp, an asymmetrical gait in which pain, weakness, or deformity in one leg causes a person to use the other leg more while walking. This results in him taking longer steps with one leg than the other, forcing him to take longer steps with one leg than the other and to move in jerks and jerks. This can be caused by physical injury to the leg or hip, infection, or osteoarthritis. A limp can also occur without pain due to a skeletal deformity, such as hip dysplasia or lopsided legs.
An abnormal gait is often the result of problems in the nervous system. One of the most common symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a disorder caused by insufficient amounts of the neurotransmitter dopamine, is a slow, shuffling walk, often called a Parkinsonian gait. It is also known as a partying gait.
Another condition called spastic cerebral palsy often causes a scissor gait, in which a person’s knees or thighs bump or cross over each other as they walk. This is due to abnormally high amounts of tension, or hypertonia, in the hamstring muscles of the leg and hip that are responsible for bringing the limbs closer to the sagittal plane or vertical centerline of the body. A person with a scissor gait often has to walk on their toes due to the tension and inflexibility of their muscles. In addition to cerebral palsy, a scissor gait can also be caused by spinal nerve injury; other nerve disorders that affect motor control, such as multiple sclerosis and syringomyelia; or stroke. It can also be the result of nerve damage due to acute liver failure.
Several types of abnormal gait can be caused by ataxia or loss of muscle coordination due to damage to parts of the brain associated with motor control, most commonly the cerebellum. This can be caused by diseases such as multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy, damage caused by a stroke or blow to the head, or substance abuse, among other things. Sufferers may develop what is called an ataxic gait, walking unsteadily with their feet wide apart for balance. A type of ataxia called Bruns ataxia causes a magnetic gait, so called because sufferers find it difficult to lift their feet straight up as they walk, as if they are resisting the pull of a magnet.
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