Partial Weight Bearing after Total Hip Arthroplasty. What does the Patient Really do? A Prospective Randomized Gait Analysis

Abstract

We investigated whether the instruction to bear full or partial weight is accurately followed by the patient after total hip arthroplasty. The investigation was made with a measuring insole. It was revealed that the patient is able to follow the order only if he receives training with and is controlled by an acoustic and/or optical biofeedback system with every step he takes. Training, even very intensive repeated training, with only a scale is futile. The patients’ strides are made with either a full weight load, when they should not do so or with only a partial weight load, when they should bear full weight.