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Objective: Follow-up of the health of patients with prior polio over a 17-year period., Design: Follow-up study., Patients: Patients with prior polio., Methods: The study questionnaire was answered in 1995 by 270 patients. In 2012 the questionnaire was sent again to the surviving patients., Results: Of the patients who answered the questionnaire in 1995, 116 (40%) were still alive in 2012. The group of patients who had died was older, and had a mean age of 70 years in 1995. A total of 60 patients participated in the study by answering the questionnaire in both 1995 and 2012. Most of these patients (84%) reported that they felt progressively worse, with poor mobility and increased muscle weakness in 2012 compared with 1995, and more than half reported a lower quality of life in 2012. The number of wheelchair users had increased significantly. Furthermore, the patients experienced increasing problems with activities of daily living (ADL) function., Conclusion: More than half of the patients with prior polio had died between 1995 and 2012. These patients were, on average, older than patients surviving in 2012. When interviewed in 2012 most of the patients felt progressively worse, with poor mobility and increased muscle weakness.

Objective: To evaluate gait in patients with post-polio syndrome, using the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) combined with three-dimensional kinematic analysis., Design: Descriptive study., Subjects: Eighteen patients and 11 healthy controls., Methods: Kinematic data were obtained during a 6MWT by a Vicon motion capture system. Distance, heart rate, leg tiredness, dyspnoea and exertion were also recorded., Results: Patients with post-polio syndrome showed larger increases in leg tiredness (p < 0.001) and dyspnoea (p < 0.05) as a result of the 6MWT than did controls. Walking speed decreased by 14.1% in patients vs 4.7% in controls (p < 0.05). Fourteen out of 18 patients displayed plantar-flexed ankle at initial contact (1/11 controls). At foot-off, the patients had a flexed hip (extended in controls) and a more flexed knee. Walking speed in patients correlated with hip angle at foot-off, at the start (r = -0.60, p < 0.001) and the end of the 6MWT (r = -0.74, p < 0.001), being higher the more the hip was extended., Conclusion: The 6MWT is fatiguing for patients with post-polio syndrome, and this was reflected in the kinematic data. Walking speed was negatively correlated with the increased hip flexion, but not with the ankle plantar-flexion at foot-off in the patients with post-polio syndrome. The three-dimensional results underscore the importance of hip function in this patient group.