Functional Results in Periacetabular Osteotomy: Is it Possible to Obtain a Normal Gait after the Surgery?

Introduction Gait analysis is one of the poorly understood dimensions of the functional results obtained after periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) due to dysplasia of the hip. Materials and methods Spatiotemporal parameters as well as coronal and sagittal plane kinematics and moments were compared among three demographically similar groups of subjects: (i) 23 patients with excellent results according to the Harris Hip Score (HHS) (mean 6.6 years of follow-up); (ii) 12 patients with good and fair results according to the HHS (mean 9.3 years of follow-up); and (iii) 35 asymptomatic controls. Results 50% of the analysed sagittal plane kinematic parameters were significantly better (p0.05). Conclusions In our experience, most of the gait parameters after PAO are close to those observed in control subjects; however, the obtained pattern cannot be classified as a completely normal gait. The excellence in terms of functional results seems not to be determined by the achievement of this theoretical goal.