Abstract
Comer CM, White D, Conaghan PG, Bird HA, Redmond AC. Effects of walking with a shopping
trolley on spinal posture and loading in subjects with neurogenic claudication.
Objectives
To explore possible mechanisms underpinning symptom relief and improved walking tolerance
in patients with neurogenic claudication (NC) when pushing a shopping trolley by evaluating
the effects of a shopping trolley on spinal posture and loading patterns.
Design
An exploratory study of kinematic and kinetic changes in walking with and without
pushing a shopping trolley in persons with NC symptoms and a comparison with asymptomatic
control subjects.
Setting
A primary care–based musculoskeletal service.
Participants
Participants (n=8) with NC symptoms who have anecdotally reported symptomatic improvement
when walking with a shopping trolley and a control group of asymptomatic persons (n=8).
Interventions
Shopping trolley.
Main Outcome Measures
Changes in lumbar spinal sagittal posture and ground reaction force.
Results
Subjects with NC and asymptomatic controls walked with significantly more flexed spinal
posture (increase in flexion, 3.40°; z=3.516; P<.001) and reduced mean ground reaction forces (−6.9% of body weight; z=−3.46; P=.001) when walking with a shopping trolley. However, at the midstance point of the
gait cycle, controls showed minimal reliance on the trolley, whereas, people with
NC showed continued offloading.
Conclusions
Both posture and loading are affected by pushing a shopping trolley; however, patients
with NC were found to offload the spine throughout the stance phase of gait, whereas
asymptomatic controls did not.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
%BW (percentage of body weight), Fz1 (vertical component of ground reaction force, point 1 (first peak)), Fz2 (vertical component of ground reaction force, point 2 (trough)), Fz3 (vertical component of ground reaction force, point 3 (second peak)), LSS (lumbar spinal stenosis), NC (neurogenic claudication), VGRF (vertical ground reaction force)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Footnotes
Supported by Arthritis Research UK (grant no. 18183) and the National Institute for Health Research.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
