The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) on the gait symmetry of patients suffering from osteoarthritis. TKA is an effective method of relieving pain and restoring function but many established outcome measures are subjective and based on patient self-report. This study used clinical gait analysis with the Walkabout Portable Gait MonitorTM (WPGM) to describe pre and post-operative function in a more objective manner.

The WPGM is a tri-axial arrangement of accelerometers that a subject wears around the waist, approximating the position of the center of mass (COM). Twenty-one TKA patients underwent a standardised WPGM assessment (a walk at a self-selected speed along a 50m hospital corridor) and completed the WOMAC and SF-36 subjective questionnaires preoperatively and three years after surgery. Data was recorded at 200 Hz for approximately twenty to twenty-five seconds. Automated Fast Fourier transformations (FFT) of the displacement data in three axes yields data on the ‘repeating irregularities’ that result from musculoskeletal injury or compensatory mechanisms and provides three clinically significant ratios Surge (asymmetry in the gait cycle in the forward direction), Lurch (side to side displacements that becomes asymmetrical with unilateral pathology) and Functional Leg Length Difference (FLLD) (asymmetry in vertical displacement during the gait cycle).

Paired t-tests show that mean Surge (p< 0.006), FLLD (p< 0.0001) and Lurch (p< 0.008) were reduced following TKA for treatment of osteoarthritis. This is evidence that the asymmetry of gait was successfully reduced and subsequently overall gait was improved following surgical intervention. Patients’ WOMAC and SF-36 questionnaires showed significant improvements in patient pain, stiffness and physical function post-operatively (p’s< 0.01).

Advantages of using the WPGM in addition to standard patient self-report questionnaires include the ease of testing, quick analysis and ability to detect musculo-skeletal health changes that might otherwise be masked by extraneous variables. A small subset of patients did not realise significant improvement in gait parameters post-operatively. On closer inspection, these patients had near normal gait patterns pre-operatively. This suggests the WPGM has great potential for objectively prioritizing patients waiting for TKA and assessing post-operative outcome.