-“Can you walk a few steps for me, sir? Okay. Turn around. Keep walking. And why don’t you keep doing that a few times as I talk.”
I’m looking at the width of his base. A normal patient should have their feet almost overlap each other as they’re walking. I’m looking at the size of his steps – the steps should exceed each other, and they are exceeding each other. I’m looking at his posture, he’s upright. I’m looking at his arm swing. A normal person has symmetric arm swing. They are all normal parts of his gait, and he has a normal gait.
-“Okay, turn around.”
A wide base would signify cerebellar disease, especially in the middle of the cerebellum. Small steps would signify other conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease. Decreased arm swing can either be due to weakness of a side or problems with the basal ganglia, such as in Parkinson’s disease.