The effect of tibia inclination on gait pattern of stroke patients with genu recurvatum who wear an Ankle Foot Orthosis: A pilot study

Abstract

© 2019 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved. BACKGROUND: Four hemiplegia post-stroke patients with 10°-30° genu recurvatum recruited for three-dimensional gait analysis to investigate optimum inclination in a Rigid Tuned Ankle Foot Orthosis (RT-AFO). OBJECTIVE: 1) To investigate the optimum inclination in a Rigid Tuned Ankle Foot Orthosis (RT-AFO) in order to stabilize stance knee kinematics in the sagittal plane for stroke patients with 10?-30? genu recurvatum, and 2) to compare the effects of RT-AFO with different inclinations on spatio-temporal parameters. METHODS: Three dimensional gait measurements were performed in five conditions for four participants: walk without AFO (T1), walk with RT-AFO in 0? inclination (T2), walk with RT-AFO in 5? inclination (T3), walk with RT-AFO in 10? inclination (T4), and walk with RT-AFO in 15? inclination (T5). RESULT: Application of tibial inclination in the AFO reduced the genu recurvatum in participants who experienced stroke. Genu recurvatum was significantly reduced in conditions T3, T4 (p< 0.001) and in T5 (p< 0.05). Optimum inclination was found at 15? tibial inclination measured during mid-stance. This study reported a statistically significant improvement in cadence in condition T4 (RT-AFO 10?) (p< 0.01). There were no significant results for improvement of walking speed and stride length. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the potential to optimize inclination of a Rigid Tuned Ankle Foot Orthosis for patients affected by stroke and also indicate the potential clinical applications of tuning the AFO in rehabilitation treatment of stroke patients.