Mrs Michelle McGrath¹, Mrs  Estelle Corr¹, Mr James Wood¹, Prof Robyn Grote¹

¹Queensland Motion Analysis Centre, Herston, Australia

Abstract:

Background:In the past due to limitations in healthcare the aim for persons who had suffered a burn was survival. Now as medicine advances, with many options to improve recovery, the focus has moved from survival to maximising functional outcome for the person who experienced a burn. A common outcome of severe burnt individuals is the loss of joint range of movement due to contractures which affects their gait. Three-Dimensional Gait analysis (3DGA) is a useful tool used to investigate various gait abnormalities and has the potential to provide an in-depth understanding of burn’s gait patterns for intervention, planning and monitoring.
Methods:The current study will investigate the gait of 20 burns patients who have suffered from severe burns (>20% total skin surface) using 3DGA. Each burns patient will attend the Queensland Motion Analysis Centre where kinematic and kinetic data will be collected from a 10 camera Vicon MX motion analysis system and floor mounted AMTI force plates. The data collected will be compared to gender and age matched controls and analysed by a gait physiotherapist.
Discussion: It is anticipated that the burn’s population will display difference in gait kinematics and kinetics when compared to the control population specifically in the range of motion in joints which in-turn will affect the joint moments and power generation.

Biography:

Michelle is a senior medical engineer at the Queensland Motion Analysis center and has recently completed her masters in medical engineering concentrating on the analysis of newborn movements using 3D motion analysis and mathematical pattern recognition technique, Fuzzy entropy. In her spare time she likes hanging out with family and friends, travelling, hiking and sailing.