Model-based prediction of post-treatment walking patterns in cerebral palsy to support clinical decision making

A brain lesion occurring shortly before, during, or shortly after birth causes cerebral palsy (CP) in 1 out of every 500 newborns. CP causes a broad range of impairments in motor control and musculoskeletal function that impair walking ability. Two thirds of the children with CP are ambulatory and most of them receive orthopedic surgery to correct bony deformities and muscle contractions in their early teens. Unfortunately, this intervention does not improve walking performance in 1 out of 4 children. The aim of this project is to develop and validate a computer modeling approach to predict the post-treatment walking pattern building on our experience in personalized neuro-musculoskeletal modeling and predictive simulation of movement. Such a tool has great potential to improve clinical decision making by allowing orthopedic surgeons to compare treatment outcome for different treatment options before entering surgery.

Keywords:neuro-musculoskeletal modeling, prediction of treatment outcome, walking kinematics, cerebral palsy, computer simulations, in silico medicine

Disciplines:Biomechanics