[Total knee arthroplasty: reproducibility of gait speed].
OBJECTIVE
To calculate the inter-session (test-retest) and inter-observers' reproducibility of the maximal gait speed measured in patients recently operated for osteoarthritis with a total knee arthroplasty.


METHODS
Evaluation of the maximal gait speed in 20 patients [t72 +/- 6.5 years] on a 10-meter track by two observers using a manual stopwatch and by an automatic photoelectric stopwatch. The maximal gait speed was measured from three trials in two conditions, with and without crutches, with 1 day of interval at the third and the fourth post-surgery week.


RESULTS
The inter-session reproducibility (1-day test-retest) is 0.91 [intraclass correlation coefficient] with crutches and 0.9 without crutches at the third post-surgery week, and 0.96 and 0.94 at the fourth post-surgery week with and without crutches respectively. The inter-observers' reproducibility is 0.9 to 0.99.


CONCLUSIONS
When a standardized protocol is used, the reproducibility of maximal gait speed measurements is excellent. These tests evaluate easily and objectively the maximal gait speed in patients recently operated with a total knee arthroplasty.
Dauty
M
M
Pôle de médecine physique et réadaptation, hôpital Saint-Jacques, CHU de Nantes, 44035 cedex 01, Nantes, France. marc.dauty@chu-nantes.fr
Cornu
C
C
Allard
Y
Y
Grandet
M J
MJ
Dubois
C
C
D000368:Aged; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016896:Treatment Outcome