Approach
- Expose lower limbs
- Remove shoes and socks
- Inspect
- Patient walks towards you, turn backwards, walk back
- Note inability to initiate movement (Parkinsons)
- Grimaces for pain?
Completion
- Examine hip and back joints
- Trendelenburg test
- Measure leg lenghts
- Examine lower limb neurology
Phases of gait
- Heel strike
- Stance (foot on ground, centre of gravity moves forwards)
- Toe off (foot begins to lift off ground from the heel forward)
- Swing (foot moves forward while the contralateral
Abnormalities of gait
| Type | Description | Reason for abnormality |
| Antalgic | Decreases stance and increased swing phase | Pain |
| Trendelenburg | Hip dips instead of rises | Abductor weakness |
| Parkinsonian | Small festinant shuffles | PD |
| Broad based | Lurches to one side | Cerebellar lesions |
| Short leg | Ipsilateral hip drops when weight is on short leg | Short leg |
| High stepping | Foot drop | |
| Spastic | Jerky, scissoring of legs | Upper motor neurone |