Issue 25-3, 2026

Review

Problems of Gait Analysis Standardization in the Rehabilitation of Orthopedic Patients: A Review



ORCIDDmitry A. Somov1,*, ORCIDMarina R. Makarova1, ORCIDEgor A. Mayorov1, ORCIDElena V. Kostenko1,2, ORCIDIrena V. Pogonchenkova1

1 S.I. Spasokukotsky Moscow Centre for Research and Practice in Medical Rehabilitation, Restorative and Sports Medicine of Moscow Healthcare Department, Moscow, Russia
2 Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia


ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION. Quantitative analysis of gait biomechanics is a clinically significant tool for assessing human locomotion patterns in health and disease. It is used to prescribe and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation measures for patients with various medical conditions. The wide variety of instrumental methods for studying gait biomechanics, the lack of standardized measurement protocols, and the consequent high degree of data variability impede the comparison of findings obtained in various medical centers.

AIM. To analyze of standardization of gait biomechanics research in accordance with modern approaches to gait assessment methodology in patients with orthopedic conditions.

MAIN CONTENT OF THE REVIEW. The analysis draws on scientific papers of varying levels of evidence (randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, cohort studies, non-systematic reviews, consensus documents) searched in the PubMed, Mendeley, ScienceDirect, eLIBRARY.RU, GoogleScholar, and Cyberleninka databases for the period 1977–2025 (521 in total). Current approaches to the clinical and instrumental assessment of gait biomechanics are examined, along with the main reasons for the lack of uniformity in terminology, a set of mandatory assessment parameters, and their reference values. The generally accepted clinical analysis of gait biomechanics includes a large number of spatiotemporal, kinetic, kinematic, and dynamic parameters. However, both domestic and international literature continue to exhibit terminological diversity in the description of gait parameters and a lack of systematization of normative values.

CONCLUSION. Standardized protocols for clinical gait analysis of orthopedic patients can include gait parameters with established clinically significant differences that have proven their clinical significance. Otherwise, choosing a biomechanical indicator as a convincing indicator of functional recovery is difficult, despite its widespread use in clinical practice.


KEYWORDS: clinical gait analysis, orthopedics, standardization

FOR CITATION: Somov D.A., Makarova M.R., Mayorov E.A., Kostenko E.V., Pogonchenkova I.V. Problems of Gait Analysis Standardization in the Rehabilitation of Orthopedic Patients: A Review. Bulletin of Rehabilitation Medicine. 2026; 25(3):93–102. https://doi.org/10.38025/2078-1962-2026-25-3-93-102 (In Russ.).

FOR CORRESPONDENCE:

Dmitry A. Somov, E-mail: somovda@zdrav.mos.ru


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