[Gait characteristics in hemiparetic patients after stroke]

The first and major criterion of success in broadly understood management of patients with stroke is to regain motor ability, at least minimally. It starts as early as possible with mobilisation of patients in bed, in a room or ward since the first days after stroke onset. Standing up and gait learning are subsequent, rapidly coming stages of rehabilitation that are of key importance in reaching the outcome of treatment, prevention of likely complications and change in the quality of life. However, reports on gait impairment have been mostly very brief and limited, and pathological gait of patients with hemiparesis has been thought to be merely "helicopod one". Physiological mechanisms of gait programming, following a focal brain lesion, impairment of gait steering and its clinical manifestation, and some practical suggestions of assessment and prognosis of gait impairment are presented in this article.