The Effects of Varying Ankle Foot Orthosis Stiffness on Gait in Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy Who Walk with Excessive Knee Flexion.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Rigid Ankle-Foot Orthoses (AFOs) are commonly prescribed to counteract excessive knee flexion during the stance phase of gait in children with cerebral palsy (CP). While rigid AFOs may normalize knee kinematics and kinetics effectively, it has the disadvantage of impeding push-off power. A spring-like AFO may enhance push-off power, which may come at the cost of reducing the knee flexion less effectively. Optimizing this trade-off between enhancing push-off power and normalizing knee flexion in stance is expected to maximize gait efficiency. This study investigated the effects of varying AFO stiffness on gait biomechanics and efficiency in children with CP who walk with excessive knee flexion in stance. Fifteen children with spastic CP (11 boys, 10±2 years) were prescr

SUBMITTER: Kerkum YL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4658111 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature