Antalgic Gait in Adults

Excerpt

Antalgic gait is one of the most common forms of altered gait in patients presenting to the emergency department and primary care offices. It refers to an abnormal pattern of walking secondary to pain that ultimately causes a limp, whereby the stance phase is shortened relative to the swing phase. In a normal, healthy person, gait is a cyclical and symmetric process. However, when an abnormality is present in one of the joints, muscles, or bones of the complex system that regulates gait, this process is disrupted. Finding the source of this disruption is essential to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.