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• Cerebral palsy (CP) children present complex and heterogeneous motor disorders that cause gait deviations.

• Clinical gait analysis (CGA) is needed to identify, understand and support the management of gait deviations in CP. CGA assesses a large amount of quantitative data concerning patients’ gait characteristics, such as video, kinematics, kinetics, electromyography and plantar pressure data.

• Common gait deviations in CP can be grouped into the gait patterns of spastic hemiplegia (drop foot, equinus with different knee positions) and spastic diplegia (true equinus, jump, apparent equinus and crouch) to facilitate communication. However, gait deviations in CP tend to be a continuum of deviations rather than well delineated groups. To interpret CGA, it is necessary to link gait deviations to clinical impairments and to distinguish primary gait deviations from compensatory strategies.

• CGA does not tell us how to treat a CP patient, but can provide objective identification of gait deviations and further the understanding of gait deviations. Numerous treatment options are available to manage gait deviations in CP. Generally, treatments strive to limit secondary deformations, re-establish the lever arm function and preserve muscle strength.

• Additional roles of CGA are to better understand the effects of treatments on gait deviations.

Cite this article: Armand S, Decoulon G, Bonnefoy-Mazure A. Gait analysis in children with cerebral palsy. EFORT Open Rev 2016;1:448-460. DOI: 10.1302/2058-5241.1.000052.

• Offsets in the frontal plane are important for hip function.

• Research on total hip arthroplasty (THA) surgery agrees that increasing femoral offset up to 5 mm could improve functional outcome measures.

• The literature indicates that global offset is a key parameter that physicians should restore within 5 mm during surgery and avoid decreasing.

• Substantiated findings on acetabular offset are lacking despite its recognized importance, and the medialization approach must be assessed in light of its shortcomings.

• Future research, possibly through improved measurement, unified definitions, patient-specific surgical planning, and technology-enhanced surgical control, with specific focus on acetabular offset, is needed to better understand its impact on THA outcomes.