ABSTRACT
Gait and station disorders are among the most common reasons patients seek outpatient
neurologic consultation. A careful assessment of gait and station provides the clinician
with an overview of the integrity of a patient's central and peripheral nervous systems.
Therefore, clinicians may consider performing a gait and station examination as the
prelude to their formal neurologic examination of the patient, regardless of their
chief complaint, to gain insight into which areas of the remainder of the neurologic
examination they should particularly focus on, to localize the patient's neurologic
dysfunction. In this review, the author describes how a structured gait and station
examination may be performed in the ambulatory setting, without any special equipment.
Then, the precise mechanics of each component of normal gait and station are discussed,
so that the potential localizations and significance of abnormalities, which may occur
during various phases of the gait cycle, can be highlighted. In particular, some less
common findings are emphasized, which may be mistaken as psychogenic in etiology.
KEYWORDS
Gait disorders - parkinsonism - normal pressure hydrocephalus - psychogenic gait disorders
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J.A. Van GerpenM.D.
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic
4500 San Pablo Road, Jacksonville, FL 32224
Email: vangerpen.jay@mayo.edu
