A New Approach to Assess Femoral Anteversion from Clinical Gait Analysis Data

Femoral anteversion is defined as the angle between the neck of the femur and the femoral condyles projected into the transverse plane. When this angle is increased it may cause variations in the gait pattern, especially in patients with cerebral palsy. Femoral anteversion is corrected surgically, therefore accurate evaluation is important. Currently, femoral anteversion is assessed either by means of physical examination (Craig's test), which is highly variable, or by performing a CT scan, which involves irradiating the patient. This paper presents preliminary results of an alternative method to assess femoral anteversion during clinical gait analysis, using reflective markers and biomechanical models. After performing a rank correlation analysis and linear regression, the proposed method appears to be more accurate than Craig’s test and avoids exposing the patient to CT scan radiation. Keywords— Femoral anteversion, gait analysis, gait laboratory, motion capture.