2018 Volume 24 Pages 125-136
This study aimed to analyze the effect of heel lift pads in ankle-foot orthoses on dynamic motion aspects of gait in stroke patients with limited dorsiflexion from the viewpoint of energy conversion efficiency. Fourteen chronic stroke patients who were ambulatory and had lower extremity motor function categorized as Brunnstrom stage Ⅳ participated in the study. A three-dimensional motion analysis system was used to assess the effect of the heel lift pad intervention on dynamic motion gait parameters. This study was a single-system A-B-A design. It was demonstrated that energy conversion efficiency and walking speed increased with the heel lift pad (P<.05). We also conducted a single case study as an external validity test and revealed that the orthosis with the heel lift pad significantly improved the rocker function of the foot-ankle system.
