Rectus femoris surgery in children with cerebral palsy. Part I: The effect of rectus femoris transfer location on knee motion.

Abstract

Rectus femoris transfer was performed in 78 children (105 sides) with cerebral palsy (CP) at the same time as other surgical procedures as appropriate. The transfer was either medial to the sartorius (62 sides), semitendinosus (19 sides), or the gracilis (14 sides) muscles, or laterally to the iliotibial band (10 sides). Gait analysis performed before and 1 year after operation demonstrated increased knee range of motion (ROM) with increased extension at initial contact and in midstance and maintained knee flexion in swing. There were no statistically significant differences between the four transfer sites in the effect on those variables. Therefore, the choice of rectus femoris transfer site can be dictated by surgical preference or by the nature of other simultaneous procedures. There was no consistent change in transverse plane motion of the hip or foot progression angles between the two gait analyses, suggesting that rectus femoris transfer does not affect gait abnormalities observed in the transverse plane.