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We studied the gait of a woman who was normal except for surgical excision of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. She was able to compensate for nearly all of her abnormalites of gait by excessive lateral pelvic tilt and prolonged quadriceps activity. Her mild disability, as regards gait, consisted of inability to increase walking speeds beyond the normal pacing. However, despite uneven step lengths, she had uniform forward progression. She had excessive dorsiflexion of the ankle and diminished plantar flexion on the involved side even though the retained plantar flexors could provide 38 per cent of her normal plantar flexor strength.

Measurements of functional performance were made before and at six and twenty-four months after 100 McKee-Farrar total hip replacements in eighty-three patients. The measurements included: range of motion of the hip, hip-muscle torque, weight-bearing activity during standing, forces applied to canes or crutches, and multiple components of walking performance. In the absence of serious complications, most patients had improvement in most components of function, with greater gains occurring during the first six months and lesser but continued gains between the sixth and twenty-fourth postoperative months. Patients with serious operative complications, postoperative infections, or component loosening showed declines in almost every component of function tested.

A force platform was utilized to provide a new and sensitive means to measure postural steadiness and stability. Normal standards are presented for the center of pressure of the vertical supportive force during standing and sustained weight-shifting of normal men in three age groups. Two distinguishing characteristics were seen for normal upright posture: (1) a large area of stability over which weight can be safely shifted and maintained, and (2) steadiness such that the center of pressure fluctuates incessantly, traversing large total excursions, while remaining remarkably close to the mean point. The youngest age group showed the greatest steadiness and stability and the oldest group showed the least.

Postoperative measurements of the range of motion and muscle strength of the shoulder and ratings of pain and the ability to perform daily activities were made in fifty-eight patients (sixty-three shoulders) who had a repair of a full-thickness rotator-cuff tear. Postoperatively, the patients had an average of 126 degrees of active flexion of the shoulder and an average of 130 degrees of active abduction. Passive motion averaged 21 degrees more than active motion. The strength of the abductor muscles of the shoulder averaged approximately 86 per cent of normal. Most patients reported marked relief of pain and rated themselves as having mild or no deficits in their ability to perform daily activities. The length of the cuff tear significantly affected the functional results. Short tears (less than 2.5 centimeters) were associated with greater strength and range of motion than were long tears. Fifteen of the nineteen patients who were unable to work preoperatively because of the shoulder returned to work after surgery, but not necessarily to the same type of work that they had done before the onset of the problem with the shoulder.

In fifty-two patients with Müller total hip replacement, roentgenographic measurements of prosthetic component positioning were correlated with hip-muscle strength and mobility measurements. Compared with the normal side, the average position of the center of the prosthetic head was more medial and superior in the pelvis, and the greater trochanter was more distal and lateral. Increasing neck length (distance from the center of the prosthetic head to the lesser trochanter) and a more distal position of the greater trochanter were among the measurements that related favorably to measurements of patient function. More superior placement of the center of the prosthetic head in the pelvis was associated with a more superior position of the lesser trochanter, which related adversely to function.

The gait of men with unilateral hip fusion is somewhat slow, asymmetrical, and arrhythmic as compared with that of normal men. Compensation for absent hip motion is accomplished by increased transverse and sagittal rotation of the pelvis, increased motion in the sound hip, and increased flexion of the knee throughout the stance phase on the fused side. Relationships between the fusion position, certain physical traits, and walking performance suggest that the best gait can be expected in young patients who have free motion of the lumbar spine, the sound hip, and the knee on the side of fusion, and who have equal limb lengths and a hip fused in a position that does not include excessive adduction.

We measured muscle strength, joint motion, and gait parameters and determined the electromyographic activities of the ankle and knee during walking, running, and stair-climbing in two children who had had a tibial rotationplasty for osteosarcoma of the distal end of the femur. Both had marked loss of strength in the plantar flexors on the side of the prosthesis compared with the sound side, although electromyographic recordings showed that the rotated calf muscles, to a substantial degree, had assumed the function of extensors of the prosthetic knee. Despite some abnormalities in gait, both children walked at speeds that were comparable to those of normal children. They could also run, climb stairs by stepping up with both limbs, and participate in many recreational activities. The functional abilities of these children suggested that rotationplasty, in patients with a similar lesion, is a worth-while alternative to above-the-knee amputation.