Assessment of hemiplegic gait using the Wisconsin Gait Scale.

Objectives: (i) To document gait improvement at walking performance and to point out the correlations between movement patterns in patients with hemiparesis using the Wisconsin Gait Scale (WGS, which is a visual gait analysis system that examines 14 observable variables related to the hemiplegic gait deviations); (ii) To identify correlations between function, motor performance, gait velocity and WGS results.

Design: A prospective study.

Setting: University-affiliated rehabilitation centres.

Participants: Thirty-five consecutively treated patients with hemiparesis were included in the study. Patient age ranged from 43 to 76 years, and time from onset of hemiplegia to admission ranged from 2 to 40 weeks.

Assessment Tools: Adapted Patient Evaluation Conference System (APECS), Functional Independence Measure (FIM), lower extremity Brunnström stage of recovery, time to walk 15 m, WGS.

Results: Statistical analysis revealed that patients' WGS scores were significantly better after they had completed the rehabilitation programme. There were significant correlations between WGS score Brunnström recovery stage and gait velocity, but gait quality assessed by using the WGS was not correlated to the overall scores of FIM and APECS.

Conclusion: In hemiplegia, the results of WGS showed that this visual scale together with the gait velocity is valuable for assessing gait deviations and monitoring gains in gait performance in patients with hemiparesis. Certain correlations between variables on the WGS pointed out the problems of dominating limb synergies.