Research On The Influence Of Different Restrictions Of Unilateral Knee Joint On Gait Characteristics

The knee joint is a significant joint in the human body’s lower limb.It’s complex and fragile nature makes it a critical and easily injured joint.Restricted knee flexibility is a common post-injury symptom.There is a motor coupling relationship between the joints of the lower extremity.When the movement of a single joint is limited,the body will adjust each joint to rebuild the coupling relationship,which means that other joints will participate in the compensation to achieve the purpose of stable walking.To reveal the mechanism of reconstructing the coupling relationship,this paper will investigate the rule of lower limb inter-joint compensation and the method of compensation classification by analyzing the gait parameters under different limitations of the unilateral knee joint,to provide a theoretical basis for the rehabilitation strategy of patients with unilateral lower limb activity limitation.This paper completed the following work.(1)In this study,a simulation experiment of unilateral knee flexion limitation was built,and gait parameters such as spatio-temporal parameters,kinematic and dynamic parameters were collected from 12 male subjects under five conditions with different limitation angles of 60°?40°?30°?and 20°,as well as normal conditions.(2)The major gait parameters were analyzed using a combination of Pearson correlation analysis and normalized intercorrelation numbers based on the experimental gait data,and a classification method based on joint angles was determined to obtain other joint compensation types and compensation patterns after unilateral knee joint motion limitation.(3)Specific compensatory gait was analyzed,the impacts of distinct compensatory types on lower limb gait characteristics were studied further,and compensatory strategies following different degrees of unilateral knee restriction were summarized.(4)Based on the above conclusions,a training program was developed for patients with unilateral knee flexion limitation and patients with different knee mobility,and a related human-computer interaction interface was designed.The study’s results revealed that as unilateral knee flexibility decreased,the number of joints involved in compensation in the lower limb increased,the method of compensation increased,the compensating joints shifted from small joints to large joints(i.e.,ankle and knee joints to hip joints),the mode of compensation changed to small joints with large joints,and the subjects primarily adopted the strategy of compensating with intra-liminal joints.The findings presented above serve as a foundation for further research into unilateral knee flexion limited gait in terms of compensatory classification and summarize the compensatory pattern under different activity levels,which will provide new ideas for more targeted selection of rehabilitation training programs.