Effect of Ankle-Foot Orthosis on Ankle Kinematics & Dynamics of Foot Drop Patients

Abstract

Ankle-foot orthoses are the devices that are used to support the ankle-foot joint and are effective in many pathologies, mainly the ones that cause the foot drop. Foot drop is caused by a deficiency in the ankle joint in which results in the weakness of ankle and toe dorsiflexion. Many causes of foot drop include neurological conditions such as stroke, muscle weakness and injury to the peroneal nerve. In this study, the effect of AFO has been analysed on the ankle in terms of kinematic and dynamic parameters. The motion data of six foot drop patients was acquired in the Gait lab facility at the Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The data acquired was then imported into OpenSim and a dynamic musculoskeletal simulation was run to obtain the results of ankle angle and ankle moment. The results found that the use of AFO significantly improved the ankle angle and moment in foot drop patients.