title: Clinical evaluation of a mobile sensor-based gait analysis method for outcome measurement after knee arthroplasty.
abstract: Clinical scores and motion-capturing gait analysis are today's gold standard for outcome measurement after knee arthroplasty, although they are criticized for bias and their ability to reflect patients' actual quality of life has been questioned. In this context, mobile gait analysis systems have been introduced to overcome some of these limitations. This study used a previously developed mobile gait analysis system comprising three inertial sensor units to evaluate daily activities and sports. The sensors were taped to the lumbosacral junction and the thigh and shank of the affected limb. The annotated raw data was evaluated using our validated proprietary software. Six patients undergoing knee arthroplasty were examined the day before and 12 months after surgery. All patients reported a satisfactory outcome, although four patients still had limitations in their desired activities. In this context, feasible running speed demonstrated a good correlation with reported impairments in sports-related activities. Notably, knee flexion angle while descending stairs and the ability to stop abruptly when running exhibited good correlation with the clinical stability and proprioception of the knee. Moreover, fatigue effects were displayed in some patients. The introduced system appears to be suitable for outcome measurement after knee arthroplasty and has the potential to overcome some of the limitations of stationary gait labs while gathering additional meaningful parameters regarding the force limits of the knee.
authors.affiliation: Department for Orthopaedic Surgery at the Annastift, Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. tilman.calliess@ddh-gruppe.de.
authors.forename: Tilman
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Calliess
authors.affiliation: Department for Orthopaedic Surgery at the Annastift, Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. raphael.bocklage@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Raphael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bocklage
authors.affiliation: Department for Orthopaedic Surgery at the Annastift, Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. roman_karkosch@web.de.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Karkosch
authors.affiliation: Hannover Medical School, Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics, University of Braunschweig-Institute of Technology and Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. michael.marschollek@plri.de.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marschollek
authors.affiliation: Department for Orthopaedic Surgery at the Annastift, Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. henning.windhagen@ddh-gruppe.de.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Windhagen
authors.affiliation: Hannover Medical School, Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics, University of Braunschweig-Institute of Technology and Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. mareike.schulze@plri.de.
authors.forename: Mareike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schulze
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D056044:Actigraphy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000368:Aged; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D060306:Magnetometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome