Video Gait Analysis

Video gait analysis has become the “New Norm” in clinical practice for many of those who are looking to identify the underlying reasons why injuries occur.

Generally – clinical gait analysis is used as a tool to identify issues that can lead to injuries and this can be done simply with camera systems and new Video APP technology up to very complex 3D Motion analysis used primarily in research settings.

Injuries are broadly speaking either insidious and have no one causal event or traumatic.

A primary traumatic event – such as a fracture following impact injury in sport has an obvious reason – hit by a bad tackle for example.

The more common repetitive stress type injuries are more subtle and normally multifactorial – as in there are number of reasons the injury occurs and also explains why they frequently are hard to treat effectively or come back to haunt us when we try to exercise – certainly in running and sports injuries.

Experienced clinicians can pick up poor patterns of movement in the Video analysis that can unlock the door to treatment pathways.

Movement pattern analysis can be performed clinically and then the causal factors in tissue stress injuries teased out for treatment.

In Wayne’s experience video analysis often leads to a multi-disciplinary approach with the Podiatry input aimed at improving foot function with the use of foot orthoses or footwear advice. With any obvious tissue or muscle balance issues, treatment can be provided by a Physiotherapist or Sports Therapist.

The video analysis allows a working diagnosis to be formed – its not worth starting to treat an injury if you are not sure what the injury is – so often Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic specialists will be key in this approach.

Foot Orthoses – Are they needed?

Need implies in this context that the Foot Orthoses are the only thing that may help. Wayne does not follow this principle and prefers to use foot orthoses if they are targeted at a tissue injury following the Video Gait Analysis.

Foot orthoses can be an excellent adjunct to Physiotherapy and movement pattern correction (exercises and strength / conditioning) and improve foot function – there is no real dispute here.

Any consultation regarding foot orthoses will be carefully thought out and their benefits versus more exercise-based treatment pathways fully explored.

We can then be confident of good outcomes from the use of the foot orthoses – rather than a trial for an uncertain diagnosis.