The Change of Lateral Shift of Center of Pressure according to the Gait Improvement in Post-Stroke Hemiplegic Patients

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the change of lateral shift of Center of Pressure (CoP) according to the gait improvement in post-stroke hemiplegic patients and to investigate relationship between the change of motor grade and lateral shift of CoP. Methods: We measured the lateral shift of CoP and motor grade of eight post-stroke hemiplegic patients at the beginning of dependent gait and independent gait. Results: We found that CoP tended to be shifted to the non-affected side when patients started to walk independently. Furthermore, there was no relationship between the change of motor grade and lateral shift of CoP. Conclusions: This result may suggest it is more important to control the non-affected side than the affected side, at least until the beginning independent gait.