The Role of Gait Analysis in the Evaluation of Patients with Cervical Myelopathy: A Literature Review Study

BACKGROUND: Gait analysis represents one of the newest methodologies used in the clinical evaluation of patients with cervical myelopathy (CM). OBJECTIVE: To describe the role of gait analysis in the clinical evaluation of patients with CM, as well as its potential role in the evaluation of the functional outcome of any surgical intervention. METHODS: A literature review was performed in the PubMed, OVID, and Google Scholar medical databases, from January 1995 to August 2016, using the terms analysis, anterior, cervical myelopathy, gait, posterior, and surgery. Clinical series comparing the gait patterns of patients with CM with healthy controls, as well as series evaluating gait and walk changes before and after surgical decompression, were reviewed. Case studies were excluded. RESULTS: Nine prospective and 3 retrospective studies were found. Most of the retrieved studies showed the presence of characteristic, abnormal gait patterns among patients with CM, consisting of decreased gait speed, cadence, step length, stride length, and single-limb support time. In addition, patients with CM routinely present increased step and stride time, double-limb support time, and step width, and they have altered knee and ankle joint range of motion, compared with healthy controls. Moreover, gait and walk analysis may provide accurate functional assessment of the functional outcome of patients with CM undergoing surgical decompression. CONCLUSIONS: Gait analysis may well be a valuable and objective tool along with other parameters in the evaluation of functionality in patients with CM, as well as in the assessment of the outcome of any surgical intervention in these patients.