Scissor gait

Scissor gait is a form of gait abnormality primarily associated with spastic cerebral palsy. It is associated with a upper motor neuron lesion.cite book |author=Saint, Sanjay; Wiese, Jeff; Bent, Stephen |title=Clinical clerkships: the answer book |publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins |location=Hagerstown, MD |year=2006 |pages=219 |isbn=0-7817-3754-0 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate=]

Presentation

Hypertonia in the legs, hips and pelvis means these areas become flexed, to various degrees, giving the appearance of crouching, while tight adductors produce extreme adduction, presented by knees and thighs hitting or crossing in a scissors-like movement, while the opposing muscles, the abductors, become comparatively weak from lack of use. Most common in patients with spastic cerebral palsy, usually diplegic and paraplegic varieties. The individual is forced to walk on tiptoe unless the dorsiflexor muscles are released by an orthaepedic surgical procedure.

These features are typical, and usually result in some form and to some degree regardless of the mildness or severity of the spastic CP condition.

* rigidity and excessive adduction of the leg in swing
* plantar flexion of the ankle
* flexion at the knee
* dorsiflexion
* adduction and internal rotation at the hip
* progressive contractures of all spastic muscles
* complicated assisting movements of the upper limbs when walking [ [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003199.htm Medline Plus] ] . [ [http://www.gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage.cfm?ID=-120586227&linkID=208&cook=yes GP Notebook] ]

Conditions associated with a scissor gait

* Spastic diplegia
* Pernicious anemia
* Cerebrovascular accident
* Cervical spondylosis with myelopathy (a problem with the vertebrae in the neck)
* Liver failure
* Multiple sclerosis
* Spinal cord trauma
* Spinal cord tumor
* Syphilitic meningomyelitis
* Syringomyelia
* other forms of Cerebral palsy

References