Effect of increased pushoff during gait on hip joint forces

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Orthopedics
• Gait Analysis

Background:

• Anterior hip pain and acetabular labral tears can stem from high anterior forces.
• Increased pushoff reduces sagittal plane hip moments, but its effect on hip joint forces is unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if increasing pushoff during walking decreases hip joint forces.

Main Methods:

• Nine healthy subjects walked under natural and increased pushoff conditions on an instrumented treadmill.
• Motion capture and ground reaction forces were used to calculate hip joint forces via inverse dynamics in OpenSim.

Main Results:

• Increasing pushoff reduced maximum hip flexion and extension moments.
• Average hip joint force reductions were 12.5% (anterior), 3.2% (superior), and 9.6% (medial).
• Net resultant hip joint force decreased by 2.3%.

Conclusions:

• Increasing pushoff is a potential gait modification to decrease hip joint forces.
• This strategy may benefit individuals experiencing anterior hip pain.