Recovery of gait after short-stay total hip arthroplasty

OBJECTIVE: To describe recovery of gait after total hip arthroplasty (THA) based on the assessment of spatiotemporal gait parameters determined with an ambulatory system. DESIGN: A 6-month inception cohort study. SETTING: Inpatient and outpatient setting in an academic hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty-three patients participating in a short-stay program for THA. INTERVENTION: Primary unilateral THA. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Walking speed, step length, step duration, and variability coefficient assessed at different walking speeds while performing an additional cognitive task and an endurance test. All measures were obtained preoperatively and 6 weeks and 6 months postoperatively. RESULTS: Patients improved significantly over time; however, extent and speed of recovery of gait parameters differed for each test part. The relation between walking speed and step length showed systematic improvement when analyzed over a range of speeds. At 6 months, the variability coefficient of the additional task test part was comparable with the preferred walking variability coefficient. The endurance test results could be predicted from the results of preferred walking. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of recovery of gait function requires more than only assessment of "normal" walking. Particularly, an analysis of walking at different speeds and walking while performing an additional cognitive task demonstrate different aspects of gait recovery after THA.