Whenever the patient actually uses the handgrips their elbow will be slightly bent at about 30 degrees now let's talk about the different types of gates while using crutches and you want to make sure that you really truly understand these different types of gates that Dynamo Walking Cane I'm going to go over because exams love to give you a description of a gate that a patient may be doing while using crutches and you'll have to identify it so before a patient even starts ambulating with crutches at first you want to make sure that they are wearing a gait belt for safety also before they start doing one of these type of gates they're going to start in the tripod position and it looks something like this and it forms like a triangle Hintz looks like a tripod and this is where the crutches are about 6 inches out diagonally from the feet.

So first let's start out with the point gates we have three of them we have the 2-point gate the 3-point gate and the four-point gate now how you can keep these straight is that you need to ask yourself how many points are on the ground hence how many crutches are on the ground and how many feet are on the ground whenever you're looking at the scenario because each crutch counts as a point and each foot counts as a point so the two-point we're gonna have two points on the ground at a time whether it's a crutch or a foot so what does it look like well this is where the patient will move the crutch on the injured side so we're going to say it's the right side so they move the right crutch and they move the left foot together then they will move the left crutch on that non injured side and the right foot together so you have two points next is the 4-point gate and it's a little bit similar to the two-point gate.

But each point is moving separately because remember in two point they were moving together the Rye and the left moving together and then the left and the right moving together be here with four point they're separate so the patient will move the right crutch witches will say the injured side then they'll move the Walking Cane for Women left foot then they'll move the left crutch and then they'll move the right foot and the last point gay is the 3.8 and this is where they move both crutches and the injured leg together at the same time and then they will move the non injured leg and then lastly we have the two swing gates and it's either a swing to gate or a swing through gate and let the names help you so the swing to gate is where the patient will move both crutches forward then they will hint swing or move both legs forward and place them at the placement of where the crutches are located now the swing through is very similar to this they will move both crutches forward then they will move both legs forward can't swing both legs forward but they will swing it pass the crutch placement now let's talk about stairs how does a patient navigate up and down the stairs while using crutches well you want to keep these two straight and.