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Ankle Foot Orthoses (AFO) are mostly advised for a stroke patient who is complicated with plantarflexion deformity, to promote initial-contact in heel-strike (by restraint extreme plantarflexion position of ankle joint) and provide ground clearance of foot in the swing phase, likewise support, and progress the alignments of the feet for reducing knee joint extension and promoting hip joint extension through stance-phase. The current study aimed to provide deeper knowledge using software gait analysis for the biomechanical effects of PLS AFO for stroke patients.
42 participants involved in the study divided into 3 groups (the first and second groups were 28 stroke participants that used AFO and with OUT-AFO and the third group was 14 normal participants without deformity. All participants walked 10 meters in a straight line and their gait was recorded at Comfortable Walking Speed. Temporal-spatial and kinematic parameters of the Hip, Knee, and Ankle joints were compared in the study. they were processed using Computer gait analysis (modified Vicon software) and The GraphPad Prism (Version 9.0) program was used to analyze the data. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Tukey’s test were carried out for comparison among the three studied groups.
The Posterior Leaf Spring AFO showed improvement in joint kinematics and temporal spatial parameters of stroke patients. greater improvement of knee range of motion in the AFO condition that has better knee flexion in the early stance (from 8.16 to 16.24 degrees with participants using AFO), a huge increase in the late stance of knee extension (from 0.16 to 3.82 degrees), and better knee flexion than the barefoot condition in the swing flexion (from 26.1 for the bare feet to 39.78 degrees using the AFO). AFO can be beneficial for improving joint kinematics and progress in walking speed, gait symmetry, and balance, and reducing the risk of falls.