BACKGROUND Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is an inherited neuropathy causing progressive weakness, foot deformity and difficulty walking. Clinical anecdotes suggest orthoses designed on the 'sensorimotor' paradigm are beneficial for improving gait in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. OBJECTIVES Investigate the effect of sensorimotor orthoses on in-shoe and lower limb biomechanics in adults with Charc...

OBJECTIVE The most simple and common approach in providing standing and walking by subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI) is the use of mechanical orthoses. These include traditional orthoses, medial linkage orthoses (MLOs) and reciprocating gait orthoses (RGOs). Independence, energy expenditure, gait parameters, system reliability and cosmesis are important factors in orthotic design. The aim ...

Globally, osteoporosis is considered a widespread metabolic bone disease, vertebral fractures being probably one of the most common clinical manifestations encountered in osteoporotic patients. Non-pharmacologic therapies of osteoporosis include, among others, the use of different types of orthoses, such as spinal orthoses or hip protectors. To date there is a limited number of studies that eva...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of foot orthoses using the foot function index (FFI) in a group of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during a period of 6 months. METHODS Thirty-six rheumatoid subjects with foot pain were examined and appropriate foot orthoses were prescribed according to each patient's needs. All the patients were evaluated 30, 90 and 180 days after the baseline...

OBJECTIVE As orthoses, and particularly ankle-foot orthoses, are widely used in the management of children with motor disorders, including cerebral palsy, we aimed to study their effect in normal children in order to add to normative gait data, which are essential for diagnosing, understanding and treating abnormal gait patterns. DESIGN We analyzed the effect of ankle-foot orthoses on classic...

BACKGROUND Foot and ankle problems are highly prevalent fall risks in the elderly. Ankle foot orthoses designed to stabilize the foot and ankles have been studied within specific patient groups, but their efficacy with a less restrictive elderly population is unknown. This study investigated if custom-made ankle foot orthoses improve postural stability in older adults. METHODS Thirty ambulato...

A questionnaire survey of patient satisfaction with the provision of lower limb orthoses from a district general hospital was conducted. Lower limb orthoses included "made-to-measure" footwear, knee braces and ankle-foot-orthoses (AFO's). Prescriptions for footwear and AFO's during a one year period, and knee braces over a two year period were assessed. The survey did not confine itself to a si...

There is a strong trend away from the use of metal in the fabrication of orthoses. Advanced concepts and the availability of plastics have frequently resulted in wholly new designs of lower-limb orthoses rather than part-for-part substitution of plastic components for metal components. Many centers, including our own Veterans Administration Prosthetics Center (VAPC), are replacing the ugly, noi...

Robot-assisted physical gait therapy is gaining recognition among the rehabilitation engineering community. Several robotic orthoses for the treatment of gait impairments have been developed during the last 2 decades, many of which are designed to provide physical therapy to a single joint of the lower limb; these are reviewed here. The mechanism design and actuation concepts for these single j...

BACKGROUND Custom foot orthoses are commonly recommended for the treatment of foot pain. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effectiveness of custom foot orthoses for different types of foot pain. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2007, Issue 2), MEDLINE (from January 1966), EMBASE (from January 1980), CINAHL (from January ...