Antalgic gait is a painful gait. A patient with antalgic gait does not want to spend time on the affected leg due to the pain. For example, if the patient has an arthritic knee or arthritic hip. Basically, the patient wants to get their weight off of the effected extremity. The patient is guarding from the pain in the involved lower extremity. The pain can be helped by using a cane on the opposite side of the painful extremity.
With antalgic gait, there is an abnormal shortened stance phase on one of their steps. The patient spends most of their stance time with their weight placed on the normal leg. The swing phase is enhanced on the affected side and may be shortened on the normal leg in order to get the normal leg back to the ground quicker. This is done in order to lift the painful extremity off of the ground.
When pain is increased by walking, it leads to an antalgic gait. An antalgic gait can be caused by pain due multiple factors in any part of the lower extremity. This can include bone, muscle, or tendon issues. It is usually caused from hip or knee pathology, but can also be caused by severe disc radiation symptoms.
When pain arises from the hip joint, there is a lurch of the trunk towards the painful side during the stance phase. When this happens, the center of gravity moves towards the painful hip. This will decrease the moment arm of body weight to the hip joint and this will reduce the total force on the hip.
Antalgic gait should not be confused with Trendelenburg gait, which results from abductor muscle weakness.
The normal gait cycle is 60% stance phase and 40% swing phase. However, with an antalgic gait, those numbers are reversed; there is 40% stance phase and 60% swing phase.
