Walking ability in stroke patients using knee gaiter and suspended walker for gait training.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to assess the walking ability of a stroke patient using knee gaiter and suspended walker. Thirty participants with first acute stroke within first 3 months with the mean age of 55.73 years participated and were allocated randomly into two groups. Participants were taken from Inpatient Department of Medicine of Shree Krishna Hospital, Karamsad and Physiotherapy Department of Shree Krishna Hospital, Karamsad. Both the groups received conventional physiotherapy for 3 weeks. Group A was administered knee gaiter, and Group B was allocated suspended walker. Outcomes/scales were measured in terms of 10-meter walk test (10MWT), 3-min walk test (3MWT), and dynamic gait index (DGI). After the treatment, both the groups showed significant improvement (<i>P</i> < 0.001) in 3MWT, 10MWT, and DGI scores, but Group A shows additional beneficial effect on 3MWT (<i>P</i> = 0.023) and 10MWT (<i>P</i> = 0.754) with using <i>t</i>-test and no significant improvement in all the components of the DGI except step component with using the Mann-Whitney test. The findings support the hypothesis that knee gaiter has better gait outcome as compared to suspended walker in stroke patients.