A Comparison the spatiotemporal efficiency of two designs of Posterior Leaf Spring (PLS) and pneumatic damper ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) in drop foot

• Main Authors: Hassan Saeedi, Ensieh Pourhoseingholi, Mohammad Kamali
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Iran University of Medical Sciences 2019-02-01
• Series: Function and Disability Journal
• Subjects: drop foot; ankle foot orthosis; spatiotemporal parameters; gait
• Online Access: http://fdj.iums.ac.ir/article-1-92-en.html

Background: Drop foot syndrome is a disorder with foot slapping after the initial contact and foot-dragging during the swing phase. Passive and hybrid passive ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) are often prescribed in these patients. Although, the effects of these AFO designs on spatiotemporal parameters during gait in passive ankle foot orthoses were investigated in many studies, the effect of different types of hybrid passives of these AFOs in these parameters seem unclear. The aim of current study was to compare the efficiency of newly designed pneumatic damper ankle-foot orthoses (PD-AFO) with posterior leaf spring ankle-foot orthoses (PLS AFO) in drop foot. Methods: For this reason, ten drop foot patients were recruited for this study, walked at self-selected comfortable speed and three dimensional motion analysis systems were used to obtain spatiotemporal gait parameters. Results: Pneumatic damper AFOs were showed significantly increase in the speed,  cadence, step width, percent of single support time, percent of double support time, step and stride time on the paretic side and step length (p<0.005). Conclusion: This newly designed pneumatic damper AFO significantly improved spatiotemporal parameters than PLS AFO.