Tension Bands Placed on the Thigh and Shank Produce Changes in the Knee Flexion Moment and Gait Asymmetry
Decreased symmetry in walking mechanics is common to many conditions associated with falling, such as muscle weakness, poor balance or flexibility, dizziness or vertigo, confusion, and vision problems [1]. Falls and the risk of falls have a substantial impact on the quality of life with aging. More than one in three adults over 65 years experience falls each year, and in half of these cases the falls are recurrent [2,3]. As patients with asymmetric gait are at a greater risk of falling during activities of daily living such as walking [1], conducting experiments on methods to correct gait asymmetries on this cohort can be potentially dangerous. However, experiments conducted with healthy patients that have an induced gait asymmetry during walking would minimize the risk to the unhealthy population while still allowing the researcher to test a subject with a gait asymmetry.