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Idiopathic Toe Walking

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  • First Online:
Handbook of Human Motion

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Abstract

Idiopathic toe walking in children is a diagnosis of exclusion. Toe walkers require investigation with a thorough clinical examination, observational gait assessment, and potential additional review to exclude an underlying diagnosis. Three-dimensional instrumented gait analysis is helpful to characterize the observed gait pattern and identify children that may benefit from intervention. It is most useful in the child with reduced range of motion at the ankle who has a toe-toe gait pattern but appears to have a heel strike on observational gait analysis. These children often compensate with either hyperextension of the knee in mid-stance, external foot progression, and/or an early heel rise, frequently missed with observational gait analysis. In this clinical scenario, instrumented three-dimensional gait analysis enables characterization of the toe walking pattern and identification of objective intervention outcomes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shriners Gait Lab, Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Karen Davies, Lise Leveille & Christine Alvarez

  2. British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Lise Leveille & Christine Alvarez

Authors
  1. Karen Davies
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  2. Lise Leveille
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  3. Christine Alvarez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Davies .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Motion & More, Barcelona, Spain

    Bertram Müller

  2. Klinik für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgi, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sebastian I. Wolf

  3. Institut for Biomechanics und Orthopedic, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Gert-Peter Brueggemann

  4. Houston, Texas, USA

    Zhigang Deng

  5. ACRISP, FedUniversity, Cremorne, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew McIntosh

  6. Wilmington, Delaware, USA

    Freeman Miller

  7. Research, C-Motion, Inc., Germantown, Maryland, USA

    William Scott Selbie

Section Editor information

  1. duPont Hospital for Children, Box 269, 19899, Wilmington, DE, USA

    Freeman Miller

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Davies, K., Leveille, L., Alvarez, C. (2016). Idiopathic Toe Walking. In: Müller, B., et al. Handbook of Human Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_60-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_60-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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