Limping or difficulty in walking properly is common when you have an injury to the foot, leg or hip. It happens because your body adjusts posture to prevent pain caused by the trauma. This alteration of posture when walking or standing to avoid pain is called antalgic gait.
- The pain is not limited to legs and hips but can also emanate from the lower back.
- When walking, there are two phases: the stance phase and the swing phase.
- The swing phase is shortened to avoid discomfort from your legs bearing the weight of the body.
Normally, diagnosis is started with a quick listening to the footsteps. These may reveal asymmetry in the gait pattern of the patient. Watching them walk is also a simple way of observing the symmetry loss in the walking pattern.
More on this below. You will also learn the possible causes, diagnosis and treatment options for anti-pain gait.
What is antalgic gait? (Meaning)
It is a posture that is developed as a way of avoiding pain when standing or walking. It can be defined from its original words:
Anti – meaning against + alge – meaning pain = antalgic gait (against pain).
With this condition, you try to minimize the pain through trying to avoid extra pressure on one leg. This condition is simply called limping in common terms.
- You will try to avoid putting pressure on one of both legs and/or both. The pain on the leg will normally affect your daily activities like walking. This will restrict the activities you can do and this is a partial disability. Limping tries to give you some temporary relief from the pain.
- The act of transferring the pressure from the affected leg to a normal leg is normally called abnormal gait. You will always try as much as you can to put a little pressure on the leg that is affected. The occurrence of antalgic pattern can be sudden and it is dependent on the cause of the pain on your leg.
- The painful posture can occur in any individual. It can be temporary or permanent again dependent on the cause. This condition is however more common in adults who have arthritic conditions that lead to pain.
- There have been observations that this condition can be seen in the young populations as well as young athletes as a result of leg injury. On average, you are likely to suffer from antalgic gait at least two times in your life.
Causes
Based on the above description, there can be so many causes that bring about antalgic gait. The common denominator or the main source of this condition is pain. Here is a deeper insight into the causes.
Injury
Injury to your leg is one of the commonest causes of posture-related pain. The injury to areas connected directly to your legs could also cause this.
If one of the muscles of your legs get torn, one of your hip bones crack, then the injury would be sufficient enough to make you begin to limp.
Deformity
Your leg, the joints and the whole of your feet can be deformed. When this occurs, your gait may end up changing completely. It is likely that you suffer this defect as early as at birth.
On the other hand, it is possible that you may develop it in the course of life as a result of injury.
Arthritis
Arthritis, mainly of the joints, otherwise called osteoarthritis brings about pain from exerted pressure and weight on the joints that are affected.
The antalgic gait presented in this case is temporary and the pain comes and then disappears.
Inflammation as a result of infections
The swelling of your leg as a result of infections on the leg could give you antalgic pattern. The inflammation and infection your leg may make your hip bones.
The joints are also likely to be very painful and this would make you to try as much as possible to avoid the pain.
Tumors/cancer
The occurrence of a tumor can be both cancerous or non-cancerous. The tumor can grow anywhere on your leg and this causes pain on the affected foot. It would eventually lead to antalgic gait.
Apart from the above descriptions, there are some of the causes that are not considered permanent. They may include:
- Muscle strains
- Ankle and knee sprains
Lower back injuries
Low back pain can sometimes manifest as discomfort that is felt not only in the hip area but also in the upper legs.
When severe, lower back pain may spread to the feet and cause symmetric pattern loss when walking, running or even standing. The pain can be severe and may need proper physiotherapy management to correct – depending on the primary cause.
Symptoms
There are some signs and symptoms that you can see with antalgic gait. They are the specific things that your doctor will look for before they make any diagnosis. Some of them include:
- A changed and different walking style
- An altered style of walking
- Excruciating pain when walking
- Walking with uneven strides
- A totally reduced stance phase
Diagnosis
There is need for a proper diagnosis of this condition to pin-point the exact source and cause of discomfort. You doctor will carry out the diagnosis so as to give the best diagnosis. The following are diagnostic areas your doctor looks out to point out the reasons for your gait.
- You will in most cases complain of pain in the joints of one or both of your legs. This pain is likely to intensify when you walk or even jog.
- You will also present with weakness of muscles and your doctor will use this to prove this condition. The doctor will conduct what is called a motor test so as to examine the muscle power, coordination and tone.
- You will have tenderness of your bones. You will also have a lot of pain over the extreme areas of your bones and the joints.
On the gait, your doctor will simply look out for the change of behavior especially walking style. There is likely to be:
- An alteration in your style of walking
- Limitation of utilization of the injured leg
- There is a lot extreme pain in the morning hours. Similarly, there is a lot of deformity taking place in the morning still.
- Feeling a lot of pain whenever you try to walk
- A lot of swelling of your joints
- Stiffness of your joints and deformity
The occurrence of the antalgic gait can be quite evident. It is therefore possible for your medical professional to be able to notice. You doctor tries to check the possibility of the pain and then identifies the cause before giving treatment.
You doctor can also carry out a blood test so as to point out antalgic gait. The blood tests below are very crucial.
- Count of white blood cells. It is evident that the number of white blood cells increase when the pain compensation gait is caused by infection.
- Checking the rheumatoid factor (RF)- when the test is done, it is positive if you have rheumatoid arthritis.
An X-Ray is also useful in the check-up of your structure of the joints and bones. In this diagnostic method, it is possible to trace the fracture, subluxation, dislocation and inflammation of your joints.
A CT scan and MRI are also important diagnostic equipment. They try to give a detailed condition and state of your joints.
Further, an ultrasound can be done for the condition to manifest. The following are the diseases that could be used to point out the problem:
- Collection of fluid in your joints
- Deformity of your joints
- Infection of your joints
The cycle
The occurrence of the normal cycle occurs in two stages. These are the stance and the swing phases. These two phases flow in alternation with one another uninterrupted. This happens as the weight is transferred from one leg to another.
The stance phase appears to take precedence as the heel strike takes place. This is followed in succession with mid-stance and then finally the toe-off movement.
On the other hand, the swing phase goes through three different motions. These two phases can however be accelerated to make the mid-swing and then decelerated.
The swing phase at times works with the stance phase. In this case, the stance phase starts with a toe-off and then ends with a heel strike thus creating a walk cycle.
You can also establish what is known as a normal gait cycle. In this case, there is coordination between the balance, rotation and strength. Injury caused on the hips or your toes could lead to the occurrence of antalgic gait.
Treatment
For you to confidently treat the antalgic gait, you first have to identify the cause. Once you treat the causes like trauma and injury, the gait will become normal yet again. There are several prescriptions that your physician may prescribe.
Use of conservative treatment. In this case, you use the cane or crutch or any other devices. These devices are important especially in the event of a fracture or other types of injury and trauma.
Use pain and inflammation relieving medications. For this case, there are medications that include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to treat the swelling. Further, you can use opioids in the event of very chronic pain.
Muscle relaxants are also very efficient in the treatment of this condition. The muscle relaxant is used to relieve pain and even the spasms.
- Doing exercise like swimming and riding the bike can also be useful in the treatment of antalgic gait.
- Further, you can conduct physical therapy. The therapy is useful in:
- Helping to improve the motility of your joint
- This helps to improve the tone of your muscles and the coordination.
On top of the above treatment options, you can employ some home remedies that will help to reduce pain. They are among them:
Carry out regular bridging exercises
This type of exercise works on the following type of muscles:
- Hamstrings
- Hip flexors
- Quadriceps
- Lower back and glutes
In the long run, they end up making them stronger and thereafter reducing pain.
You could lie flat on your back
- First of all, bend your legs and then try to pull them towards your buttocks.
- Ensure that your hips are at the same levels as your shoulders and the knees.
- As you continue doing this, ensure that your hips and hamstrings are tight.
- Hold for 2 seconds and slowly sink your bottom to the ground.
- Carry out this process several times a day. This will give you the best results.
Lie laterally and then lift your leg
Lying down laterally is able to strengthen and then develop the bands of your muscles that are responsible for the side movement of your legs. This kind of exercise is able to work on your buttocks and the hamstring muscles. You can do this in the following manner:
- Lie down on your side probably the right side.
- Elongate your arm.
- Lift your left leg and then stretch it as far as you can and then lift your leg as long as possible.
- Slowly lower your leg to ensure that it is in line with the right leg.
- Carry out the process and then repeat about 15 times.
- Turn over the other side and then repeat with your right leg.
- Carry out this process from day to day to get even better results.
Carry out lying leg circles
Carrying out leg circles are able to work on the muscles of your gluteus and the hips. This is able to promote and make them flexible, stronger and to make them rotate. To this, the outline below would be very key.
- Lie on your back and the straighten your legs as you stretch them out.
- You can straighten your leg to as long as three inches from the ground.
- Make small circles but ensure that you maintain your leg in a straightened position.
- Repeat this process with the other leg.
- Carry out about 5 rotations for each leg at a particular instance. You could carry on about 15 rotations for each individual leg.
Do a single-legged squat
This process is also known as single-leg squat or the pistol squat. They are aimed at making your legs to become more resilient. To bring about the effects, it works on the gluteus muscles so as to make them stable and balanced. The outline involves:
- Stretch out all your fingers.
- Stand and have your feet and shoulder width apart. Remain rooted to the ground and have your feet pointed to the front.
- Stretch your leg forward but ensure you do not have to bend your knee. Your foot should not touch the ground.
- Sit back so as to lower your body. Consequently, bend the knee of the opposite leg.
- Try to squat the lowest that you can
- Remain in this position for about 20 seconds
- It is now time for you to press down your foot and then try to stand up.
- Do about 1 sets of the process in a day.
- With time, you could increase the number of sets as your muscles acquire adequate strength.
Do a seated butterfly stretch
This kind of exercise works mainly on your
- Hips
- Inner thighs
- Lower back
The end result is that it increases the flexibility and strength of your muscles. To do this, follow the guideline below
- Bend your knees to the side and then sit on the floor.
- Ensure that you involve the muscles of your abdomen so as to stabilize your spine.
- Constantly exhale as you try pulling the heels towards your side.
- Consequently, relax your heels towards the flow as long as you can do it.
- Breathe as you hold breathe alternatively for about 30 seconds.
- In the final process, leaning forward towards your body.
- You could carry out this process up to about 20 times in a day. You will be able to perform even more in a day with time as your flexibility increases
Carry out the clamshell exercise
This is an exercise that is meant to balance the muscles of your pelvis and the inner and outer side of your thigh. In the long run, it ends up to giving strength to the lower part of the body and the hips.
You can do this using the following outlined process
- Lie down on your side.
- Have your knee bent about an extent of 90 degrees.
- Align your heels to the level of your butts.
- Lift your knee and the ensure you don’t rotate your butt or your pelvis.
- Allow your knee to remain lifted for about 20 minutes.
- Get back to the resting position yet again.
- Repeat 15 times on each side for stronger hips.
All of the above discussed home remedies only intend to ease the pain and then give you some relief. Chances of adopting a new gait in this case is likely to be reduced because the cause would be catered for.