Gait abnormalities

Gait abnormality typically results from affections of nervous and musculoskeletal systems. Persons suffering from peripheral neuropathy experience numbness and tingling in their hands and feet. This can cause ambulation impairment, trouble in climbing stairs and maintaining balance. Gait abnormality is also common in persons with nervous system affections such as Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Myasthenia gravis among others. Orthopedic corrective treatments may also manifest into gait abnormality, such as lower extremity amputation, post-fracture, and arthroplasty (joint replacement). Difficulty in ambulation that results from chemotherapy is generally temporary in nature, though recovery times of six months to a year are common. Likewise, difficulty in walking due to arthritis, joint pains (antalgic gait) sometimes resolve spontaneously once the pain is gone. .

Antalgic gait
''User favors certain motions to avoid acute pain. ''
 * Trauma
 * Osteoarthritis
 * Pelvic girdle pain

Drunken gait/Cerebellar ataxia
''Reeling in a style like that of an intoxicated person. ''
 * Ataxia
 * Cerebellar lesions
 * Cerebellar degeneration
 * Intoxications

Festinating gait/Parkinsonian gait
''Patient moves with short, jerky steps. Term derives from Latin "festino", or "to hurry". ''
 * Parkinson's disease

Pigeon gait
''Torsional abnormalities. ''
 * Hip dysplasia

Propulsive gait
''Stiff, with head and neck bent. ''
 * Carbon monoxide poisoning
 * Parkinson's disease

Steppage gait/High stepping gait
''Toes point down. ''
 * Polio
 * Multiple sclerosis
 * Guillian-Barre
 * Disk herniation
 * Peroneal Muscle Atropy
 * peroneal Nerve Injury

Scissor gait
Legs flexed slightly at the hips and knees, giving the appearance of crouching, with the knees and thighs hitting or crossing in a scissors-like movement. Often mixed with or accompanied by spastic gait, a stiff, foot-dragging walk caused by one-sided, long-term muscle contraction. Most common in patients with spastic cerebral palsy, usually diplegic and paraplegic varieties. The individual is forced to walk on tiptoe unless the dorsiflexor muscles are released by an orthaepedic surgical procedure. Muscle contractures of the adductors result in thighs and knees rubbing together and crossing in a manner analogous to scissors.

These features are typical, and usually result in some form and to some degree regardless of the mildness or severity of the spastic CP condition.


 * rigidity and excessive adduction of the leg in swing
 * plantar flexion of the ankle
 * flexion at the knee
 * adduction and internal rotation at the hip
 * contractures of all spastic muscles
 * complicated assisting movements of the upper limbs when walking.

Sensory ataxia gait/Stomping gait
Uncoordinated walking   
 * Friedreich's ataxia
 * Pernicious anemia


 * Tabes Dorsalis (Syphilis)

Spastic gait
''Asymmetric foot dragging. ''
 * Brain tumor
 * Sturge-Weber syndrome
 * Cerebral palsy

Trendelenburg gait

 * weakness of the abductor muscles of the lower limb, principally gluteus medius

Waddling/Myopathic gait
''Walking like a duck. ''
 * Pregnancy

Magnetic gait
Feet seem attached to floor as if by a magnet. In magnetic gait, each step is initiated in a "wresting" motion carrying feet upward and forward. Magnetic gait can be visualized in terms of a powerful magnet being forcefully pulled from a steel plate.
 * Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH)