Examination of Gait

One of the major purposes of rehabilitation is to help patients achieve the highest level of function given their specific impairments so they can participate optimally in activities of interest. Human ambulation, or gait, is one of the basic components of independent function commonly affected by either disease or injury. Consequently, the desired outcome of many physical therapy interventions is to restore or improve a patient’s ambulatory status. Gait, defined as the manner in which a person walks (e.g., cadence, step length, stride length, speed and rhythm) differs from locomotion, which refers to an individual’s capacity to move from one place to another.1 Although there are many specific reasons for performing a gait analysis, all of them require some information about the walking capacity of either an individual or a group of people with a particular disability. Because there are multiple approaches to gait analysis, ranging from very simple to extremely complex, the therapist must carefully consider how information obtained from a gait analysis is to be used. General as well as specific clinical indications for conducting a gait analysis may be found in the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice 3.0, some of which are included below.1