Winter D A
Med Prog Technol. 1976;4(3):95-106.
As a routine clinical tool the locomotion laboratory has been a long time evolving. This paper reviews the development, successes and failures of locomotion assessment systems. A detailed picture of the state of knowledge of normal gait is presented along with some suggested directions regarding needed technological development as well as some criticism of the lack of biomechanical modelling. As examples of clinical applications, four major gait pathologies are reviewed: amputees, hemiplegia, cerebral palsy and joint replacement. The state of knowledge of each of these patient populations is presented along with a critique of the assessment methods and conclusions. It is hoped that this paper will provoke discussion regarding the real purpose of a clinical locomotion laboratory, and put some perspective on the cost in terms of equipment, space, newly trained or retrained personnnel and computer systems.
作为一种常规临床工具，运动实验室经过了长时间的发展。本文回顾了运动评估系统的发展、成功与失败之处。文中呈现了关于正常步态知识现状的详细情况，以及一些有关所需技术发展的建议方向，同时也对生物力学建模的缺失提出了一些批评。作为临床应用的实例，本文回顾了四种主要的步态病理学情况：截肢者、偏瘫、脑瘫和关节置换。文中介绍了这些患者群体中每一类的知识现状，并对评估方法和结论进行了批判。希望本文能引发关于临床运动实验室真正目的的讨论，并从设备、空间、新培训或再培训人员以及计算机系统等方面对成本有一些认识。
