Note: CEUs are not offered for this course.

Course Description

This 3-monograph series is designed to provide the reader with an understanding the lower extremity biomechanics during gait. Clinical applications are highlighted and research findings are applied to enable effective decision-making for evaluation and treatment of select gait deviations. Cases studies are provided for each monograph.

Course Overview

Course Format: Online

Course Objectives

1. Understand the normal spatiotemporal characteristics of the hip, knee, and ankle-foot complex during gait.
2. Understand the kinetics and kinematics of the joints of the lower extremity during the gait cycle.
3. Identify similarities and differences between walking and running for the lower extremity.
4. Discuss the manner in which joint coupling transfers torque throughout the kinetic chain.
5. Describe the sequential concentric and eccentric muscle actions that occur during the stance phase of locomotion.
6. Discuss the stresses imposed by common foot strike running patterns.
7. Characterize the gait deviations commonly observed after specific orthopaedic injuries of the lower extremity.
8. Describe the evidence for interventions suggested to improve aberrant gait deviations in the lower extremity.
9. Understand the clinical implications of persistent aberrant gait patterns.
10. Describe therapeutic strategies to manage mechanobiologic processes that can ultimately lead to tendon and articular cartilage degeneration in the foot and ankle.
11. Discuss the limitations of the current evidence-based practice to address aberrant gait patterns after orthopaedic injury of the hip, knee, and ankle-foot complex.
12. Identify potential future directions for research on treatment of gait deviations that occur following orthopaedic injury.

Topics and Authors

• The Hip
  Abagale Reddy, PT, DPT; Julie Bage, PT, DPT, OCS; David Levine, PT, PhD, DPT, OCS, CCRP, CertDN
• The Knee
  Stephanie L. Di Stasi, PT, PhD, OCS; Erin H. Hartigan, PT, DPT, PhD, ATC, OCS; James Selfe, PhD, MA, GD Phys, FCSP; Jim Richards, BEng, MSc, PhD; David Levine, PT, PhD, DPT OCS, CCRP, CertDN
• The Foot and Ankle
  Gary B. Wilkerson, EdD, ATC, FNATA; Barry Dale, PT, PhD, DPT, ATC, SCS, OCS, CSCS; Richard G. Alvarez, MD