Bérengère Maillard

Stroke consequences include hemiparesis and difficulty walking. Several types of canes exist to overcome these alterations, but little data compares the quadripod cane and the rolling cane in hemiparetic patients. The objective of this work is twofold: to determine whether the gait speed—the most often used parameter to assess gait performance—depends on the type of cane, and to establish which spatiotemporal parameters have the most influence. Thirty-four hemiparetic patients performed 10 m walking tests at comfortable and fast speed conditions, using both canes on two different days. To objectively analyze their gait patterns, we used a tri-axial Inertial Measurement Units (IMU)-based system to record the walking signals from which we extracted the gait spatiotemporal parameters. We particularly examined the speed, stride length, and durations of stance, swing, and double support phases. The results showed that hemiparetic patients walked faster with the rolling cane during both speed conditions. These speed increases could be explained by the decrease in the stance phase duration of the affected leg, the decrease in the double support duration, and the increase in cadence. Our findings suggest that the rolling cane allows safe and faster walking.