Title: Use of a walking stick to aid mobility, decrease freezing of gait and enhance postural stability in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Aim: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with stiffness/rigidity, tremor, bradykinesia and postural instability. This presentation provides a simple explanation and means to overcome these difficulties. Methods: There has been an appreciation of the problems accompanying gait disturbance, in PD, which result from stiffness/rigidity which impedes righting reflexes, superimposed on the bradykinesia, gait instability and tremor, the diagnostic hallmarks of PD. This has evolved into a method of using a walking stick, to overcome many of these issues, which counteracts them once the technique has been adopted and perfected. Results: This presentation demonstrates and explains the appropriate use of a walking stick in PD, via a pre-recorded, professionally produced video, to allow others to adopt the technique and use it in the management of patients who are experiencing gait problems,as a consequence of their PD. Discussion: The appropriate use of a walking stick in PD depends on an understanding that the main problem with gait relates to moving around the centre of gravity which, when stable, standing in one position with the feet somewhat apart, rests between the feet thereby providing stability in that position. With stiffness and rigidity, it is difficult to correct for balance disturbance following a shifting of the centre of gravity and the patient has often learnt to recognise this difficulty with subsequent falls. Using a walking stick, as an additional leg substitute, allows the patient to maintain stability which shifting the centre of gravity forwards following which the patient can then move around that newly created centre of gravity with a feeling of safety and comfort. This has the capacity to enhance mobility, improve quality of life and is a simple approach to facilitate the ability to avoid falls and subsequent injuries that are so common in this population due to their gait instability

Biography

Prof. Beran is a neurologist and sleep physician. He is Conjoint Professor of Medicine, University of NSW; Professor,School of Medicine, Griffith University, Queensland; and Professor Sechenov Moscow 1st State University, Russia. He is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine, the Australian Governor and Vice President of the World Association for Medical Law andHonorary Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine [Royal College of Physicians (London)]. He is a: Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh; Corresponding Fellow of the American Academy of Neurologists; and Member of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists andAustralasian Sleep Association. He published >360 papers, book chapters and letters to the editor, presented >400 papers at national and international meetings and written/edited 17 books, including being the editor in chief of the international journal, Medicine and Law.