Effects of Treadmill Gait Training on Gait Patterns in Hemiplegic Patients comparison with conventional gait training

편마비 환자에서 트레드밀 보행훈련이 보행에 미치는 효과 - 지면 보행훈련과의 비교 -

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of treadmill gait training on the functional characteristics and the temporal-distance parameters of gait in hemiplegic patients, as compared with conventional gait training. The subjects of this study were 32 hemiplegic patients who had been admitted or were visited out-patients at Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University, from March 3 through April 25, 2003. These subjects were randomly divided into treadmill gait training group or conventional gait training group. We evaluated the gait ability, motor functions, muscle strength, spasticity, physiological cost index, and temporal-distance parameters. We analyzed the changes between pre and post training in each groups, and the difference between two groups. Temporal-distance parameters were obtained using the ink footprint method and then energy consumption using physiological cost index. The results were as follows: 1. After a six-week training, treadmill gait training group significantly improved, as. compared to pre-training, in gait ability, motor functions for the leg and trunk and gross function, muscle strength of the lower limb, gait speed, cadence, step length both on the affected and on the unaffected side, step length symmetry, and energy consumption(p<0.05). 2. After a six-week training, conventional gait training group significantly improved, as compared to pretraining, in gait ability, motor functions for the leg and trunk, muscle strength of the lower limb, spasticity the upper limb, gait speed, cadence, step length both on the affected and on the unaffected side, and energy consumption(p<0.05). 3. After a six-week training, the treadmill gait training group significantly improved, as compared to the conventional gait, training, in gait speed and step length on the unaffected side. These results show that treadmill gait training was improved gait speed and step length on the unaffected side of hemiplegic patients, as compared with conventional gait training. Further research is needed to confirm the generalization of these findings and to identify which hemiplegic patients might benefit from treadmill gait training.