Does the subject orbit around his eye and how does he lean on standing feet? Study on 100 cases

Abstract

Postural control and standing balance involve visual, vestibular, proprioceptive and exteroceptive afferents. The role of the position of the eyes in posture in people with orthopedic disorders of the trunk and/or lower limbs is studied in correlation with the podal supports. In a medical consultation for orthopedic disorders, patients were selected over a continuous period. A standing stabilometry (platform of force with 4 quadrants-51sec-feet at 15°), performed by fixing the right gaze in front measures the distribution of the supports right/left. In frontal photographs, the vertical alignment of the pupils with the center of the intermalleolar line, the centers of the tibiotarsal joints and the inclination of the biscapular line with the horizontal line were analyzed. Of the 99 patients studied (62 scoliosis 7 scoliotic attitudes), the intemalleolar center was aligned vertically with the right eye ( n = 57) or the left eye ( n = 42). The bipodal supports were symmetrical for these two groups. When the right eye was vertically aligned with the intermalleolar center, the left eye was aligned with the left tibiotarsus for 88% of cases with a marked biscapular inclination. When the left eye was aligned with the intermalleolar center, the right eye was aligned with the right tibiotarsus in 79% of cases with a moderate average biscapular inclination. Remarkably, the intermalleolar center constantly aligns vertically with one eye, with a frequent alignment of the second eye with the center of the homolateral tibiotarsal joint, in people with orthopedic disorders affecting the trunk and/or the lower limbs. This postural asymmetry, however, is associated with symmetric loading on feet. Why does the subject not detect this postural shift centered on an eye as fixed point? The role of the action of the eye in this configuration with permanent shift action on the body is source of distance stresses, pain and deformations (Wolf and Delpech's laws and soft tissue adaptation-retraction). The choice of a director's eye organizing the posture is discussed. This might explain correlations between the alignment of the second eye on the left and scoliosis in women.