title: Mechanical work and energy consumption in children with cerebral palsy after single-event multilevel surgery.
abstract: Multilevel surgery is commonly performed to improve walking in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Classical gait analysis (kinetics, kinematics) demonstrated positive outcomes after this intervention, however it doesn't give global indication about gait's features. The assessment of energy cost and mechanical work of locomotion can provide an overall description of walking functionality. Therefore, we propose to describe the effects of multilevel surgery in children with CP, considering energetics, mechanical work, kinetic and kinematic of walking. We measured external, internal, total work, energy cost, recovery, efficiency, kinetic and kinematic of walking in 10 children with CP (4 girls, 6 boys; 13 years ± 2) before and 1 year after multilevel surgery. Kinetic and kinematic results are partially comparable to previous findings, energy cost of walking is significantly reduced (p < 0.05); external, internal, total work, recovery, efficiency are not significantly different (p = 0.129; p = 0.147; p = 0.795; p = 0.119; p = 0.21). The improvement of the walking's energy consumption is not accompanied by a corresponding improvement of mechanical work. Therefore it is conceivable that the improvement of walking economy depend on a reduced effort of the muscle to maintain the posture, rather then to an improvement of the mechanism of energy recovery typical of human locomotion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological, and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, via Casorati, 43, Verona, Italy. Electronic address: valeria.marconi@univr.it.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marconi
authors.affiliation: Service de Médecine physique et Réadaptation, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Avenue Hippocrate, 10-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: hachez_h@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Hélèn
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hachez
authors.affiliation: Service de Médecine physique et Réadaptation, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Avenue Hippocrate, 10-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: anne.renders@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Renders
authors.affiliation: Service de Chirurgie orthopédique, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Avenue Hippocrate, 10-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: pierre-louis.docquier@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Pierre-Louis
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Docquier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosciences, université catholique de Louvain, Avenue Mounier 53 B1, 5304-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: christine.detrembleur@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Chrisitine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Detrembleur
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D002648:Child; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies
keywords: Cerebral palsy; Energetics; Mechanics; Multilevel surgery; Walking