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Biomechanics of the Hip During Gait

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The Pediatric and Adolescent Hip

Abstract

Pathologies of the hip affect its biomechanics and vice versa. There is a strong relationship between the shape and orientation of the proximal femur and acetabulum, and the capacity of the hip muscles to generate the moment required to achieve a movement. Conversely, the biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system during gait affects the kinematics, kinetics and joint contact forces at the hip. When abnormal, these forces may lead to the development of hip pathologies. In this chapter, the functional anatomy of the hip and the relationship between bone shape and the capacity of the muscles to develop moments in each anatomical plane, is described. Clinical gait analysis is introduced as a means to study the biomechanics of the hip in detail, and describe the kinematics, kinetics and joint contact forces of typically developing children and adolescents.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Definition by http://www.thefreedictionary.com

  2. 2.

    The value in the publication is 104° but it corresponds to the complementary angle, therefore 90° need to be subtracted leading to 104 − 90° = 14°.

  3. 3.

    By convention, the moment of a force that rotates the segment clockwise is negative.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the work of the teams behind the free and open-source software 3DSlicer and OpenSim [12, 14], which allowed me to produce many of the simulations and illustrations in this chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Morgan Sangeux

  2. The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Morgan Sangeux

  3. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Morgan Sangeux

  4. Biomech-Intel, Marseille, France

    Morgan Sangeux

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  1. Morgan Sangeux
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Director of Paediatric Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Royal Manchester Children Hospital, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK

    Sattar Alshryda

  2. Weill Cornell Medicine, Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar

    Jason J. Howard

  3. Senior Attending Physician in Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar

    James S. Huntley

  4. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Jeffrey Mast Chair of Orthopaedic Hip and Trauma Surgery, Nashville, TN, USA

    Jonathan G. Schoenecker

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Sangeux, M. (2019). Biomechanics of the Hip During Gait. In: Alshryda, S., Howard, J., Huntley, J., Schoenecker, J. (eds) The Pediatric and Adolescent Hip. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12003-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12003-0_3

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12003-0

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