Neurological gait disorders are a common cause of falls, morbidity, and mortality, particularly amongst the elderly. Neurological\ngait and balance impairment has, however, proved notoriously difficult to treat. The following review discusses some of the\nfirst experiments to modulate gait and balance in healthy adults using anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) by\nstimulating both cerebral hemispheres simultaneously. We review and discuss published data using this novel tDCS approach, in\ncombination with physical therapy, to treat locomotor and balance disorders in patients with small vessel disease (leukoaraiosis)\nand Parkinson�s disease. Finally, we review the use of bihemispheric anodal tDCS to treat gait impairment in patients with stroke in\nthe subacute phase. The findings of these studies suggest that noninvasive electrical stimulation techniques may be a useful adjunct\nto physical therapy in patients with neurological gait disorders, but further mutlicentre randomized sham-controlled studies are\nneeded to evaluate whether experimental tDCS use can translate into mainstreamclinical practice for the treatment of neurological\ngait disorders.
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