Considering lower limb problems at the impairment level

Abstract

There are two types of assessments in physical therapy: top-down and bottom-up. Top-down evaluations, which we recommend, focus on movement observation and analysis. In this article, we introduce some points for analyzing ankle joint problems. When observing movements, determining the details of the movements according to the type of movement is sometimes difficult. In such cases, dynamic alignment evaluation is occasionally performed, an example of which is presented in this article. In addition, patients with ankle joint diseases often have limited range of motion of ankle dorsiflexion. Multiple factors contribute to ankle dorsiflexion limitation, such as flexor hallucis longus and Kager’s fat pad, which we describe in this study using an ultrasound imaging system.