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Introduction Brachial plexus palsy, as one of the most common congenital injuries affected by arm swing, is characterized by muscle weakness at different levels in the upper extremity (1). As the weakness of the upper extremity muscles can affect the trunk muscles and the postural development, these children may have some gait deviations (2,3). Previous studies have shown that walking parameters are also influenced by clinical conditions such as stroke and cerebral palsy (2-6). There is a lack of literature on determining the biomechanical influences of arm swing asymmetry on foot pressure behavior for OBBP children. Therefore, the aim of the study was determining arm-swing asymmetry related foot pressure behavioral alterations on OBBP. Research Question Does arm swing asymmetry affect foot plantar pressure behavior on OBBP patients? Methods Thirteen children with OBPP (7 females, 6 males) (mean age:9.37±2.68 years) participated in the study. For all individuals, a digital plantar-pressure analysis system (Win-track, Balma, France) was utilized to analyze the foot pressure behavior during standing and walking with self-selected velocity. The magnitude of the first and the second peak forces divided to an invidual’s weight (Fl, F2), total stance duration (Ts), time of Fl (Tl), time of min force between F1-F2 (T2), time o f F2 (T3), step length were calculated. Each stance phase was divided into five sub-phases: Loading response (Tl/Ts), mid-stance (T2-Tl/Ts), terminal stance (T3-T2/Ts) and pre-swing (Ts-T3/Ts), single limb support (T3-Tl/Ts) (7). In addition, arm swing ranges were recorded and analyzed using Kinovea software (8). Paired t-test was used for the compared between affected side and non-affected side (p < 0.05). Results Fl, pre-swing duration and step length were higher in affected side than in non-affected side(p |
