Clinical gait analysis in a rehabilitation context: some controversial issues

Objective: To determine the focus of clinical gait analysis in order to explain the observed mismatch between the available technology for movement analysis and the aims of clinical rehabilitation medicine. Design: Literature search using two different interactive computerized search systems. Outcome measures: The selected studies on clinical gait analysis were screened on the type of tasks they employed in the assessment of gait. The tasks were divided into impairment-orientated and disability-orientated. Results: The results indicated a dominance of simple motor tasks focusing at the level of impairments. In only 15 out of the 96 reviewed articles were tasks used that were aimed at the level of disabilities. Conclusions: A gap exists between the conceptual frameworks used in clinical rehabilitation medicine and those used in clinical movement analysis.