Clinical observational gait analysis to evaluate improvement of balance during gait with vibrotactile biofeedback.

Background And Purpose: This study explores the effect of vibrotactile biofeedback on gait in 20 patients with bilateral vestibular areflexia using observational gait analysis to score individual balance.

Methods: A tilt sensor mounted on the head or trunk is used to detect head or body tilt and activates, via a microprocessor, 12 equally distributed vibrators placed around the waist. Two positions of the tilt sensor were evaluated besides no biofeedback in three different gait velocity tasks (slow/fast tandem gait, normal gait on foam) resulting in nine different randomized conditions.