Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters and Gait Asymmetry in Patients With Lumbar Disc Herniation, Treated With Microdiscectomy: A Prospective, Observational Study

Objective: The aim of this study was to emphasize on the interaction of spatial and temporal gait parameters and analyse the gait asymmetry in the patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) before and after microdiscectomy. 

Methods: This was a prospective, observational study conducted on 59 cases of LDH planned for lumbar microdiscectomy, and healthy control group with 54 participants for analysis was performed prior to surgery and 15 days after surgery. The spatiotemporal gait parameters were measured using a “Win-Track” gait analysis platform system. All the participants walked barefoot for 10 times with their normal walking speed in the same day. The 3 flaw-less walking data were recorded and the arithmetic means were computed. The gait symmetry index was used to calculate the walking asymmetry. The pain intensity of the patients was recorded shortly before performing the analysis by a visual analogue scale. 

Results: In the postoperative assessment LDH patients had significantly shorter temporal parameters, longer spatial parameters, faster walking speed, and more cadence than the preoperative assessment (p < 0. 05). There were improvements in the asymmetry values of the postoperative gait parameters compared to the preoperative values, but these differences were not significant (p > 0. 05). In addition, there was a significant difference in all parameters in terms of gait asymmetry between the postoperative assessment and the healthy controls (p < 0. 05). 

Conclusion: These results can guide the patient-specific evaluating and implementation of gait rehabilitation programs, and design protocols before or after surgery in the LDH patients.