Pelvic exercise and gait in hemiplegia

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the gait of 20 patients with hemiplegia secondary to cerebrovascular accident (CVA) before and after a treatment regimen of resisted pelvic motions. Ten women and 10 men were studied, with a mean age of 48 years and a mean duration post-CVA of two months. Nine subjects (45%) were right hemiplegic, and 11 subjects (55%) were left hemiplegic. Treatment consisted of four sets of five repetitions each of manually resisted pelvic anterior-elevation and posterior-depression movements on the involved side. An insole footswitch system, knee electrogoniometer, and force walking aid were used in gait analysis performed before treatment, immediately after treatment (posttest 1), and 30 minutes after treatment (posttest 2). Results showed significant overall improvement in gait in posttest 1 (p less than .005) compared with the pretest. This improvement, however, was not maintained in posttest 2. Ten patients improved overall in posttest 1; only 4 patients also showed improvement in posttest 2. The major improvements seen immediately after treatment were observed in stance stability and limb advancement in the involved limb. More research is needed to identify an optimum treatment with carry-over using this technique.