BACKGROUND Low back pain (LBP) is a significant public health problem in Western industrialised countries and has been reported to affect up to 80% of adults at some stage in their lives. It is associated with high health care utilisation costs, disability, work loss and restriction of social activities. An intervention of foot orthoses or insoles has been suggested to reduce the risk of develo...

Simpler foot orthoses allow the muscles, tendons and bones of the feet and lower legs to function at their highest potential. When appropriately prescribed, these orthoses can decrease pain and increase stability in an unstable joint, along with preventing potential progression or development of a deformity. Improved quality of life often results from the application of the principles of orthot...

This work is meant to quantify the benefits of the foot orthoses [1,2] through the clinical case of a female patient aged 67 who broke her right calcaneum. To investigate this, we implemented three experiments commonly used during podiatric examinations to assess walking parameters: the passive antepulsion test, the stabilo-baro-podometrie analysis [3,4] and the Latero-Medial Index, measures ta...

Passive-dynamic ankle-foot orthoses (PD-AFOs) constitute a class of ankle braces that rely on material properties and physical features to establish functional characteristics such as bending or rotational stiffness. We have developed a novel framework that combines a fully parameterized PD-AFO computer-aided design (CAD) model and free-form fabrication to rapidly manufacture customized PD-AFOs...

PURPOSE Arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) can be described as a complex condition characterized by deformed joints with an intact sensory system. Consequences of muscle weakness and joint contractures in the lower limbs influence walking ability. With orthoses most children achieve functional ambulation. Based on four studies, the aim of this article was to describe gait pattern wearing ...

Foot orthoses are prescribed to improve posture in the foot and ankle. The decade of the 1980s witnessed the widespread use of foot orthoses in an attempt to produce relief of a variety of symptoms in the foot and leg and pathologies due to hindfoot and/or forefoot malalignments. While it is documented that many overuse injuries of the lower limb can be relieved with the use of foot orthoses, i...

BACKGROUND Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is a prevalent, often recalcitrant and multifactorial knee pain condition. One method to optimize treatment outcome is to tailor treatments to the patient's presenting characteristics. Foot orthoses and hip exercises are two such treatments for PFP with proven efficacy yet target different ends of the lower limb with different proposed mechanisms of effect. ...

BACKGROUND Achilles tendinopathy is a common condition that can cause marked pain and disability. Numerous non-surgical treatments have been proposed for the treatment of this condition, but many of these treatments have a poor or non-existent evidence base. The exception to this is eccentric calf muscle exercises, which have become a standard non-surgical intervention for Achilles tendinopathy...

BACKGROUND Conservative management of foot problems in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may consist of the prescription of customised foot orthoses. Indications for foot orthoses are not clear and the effectiveness of the intervention is highly variable among patients. Knowledge on which patients benefit the most from foot orthoses can help to select patients eligible for this type of in...