Article

OBJECTIVE: To compare walking energy cost between an anterior and a posterior
ankle-foot orthosis in people with foot drop. DESIGN:
Within-group comparisons.
PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-three adults (14 women, 9 men; mean age 56.8 years (standard
deviation 15.4)) with foot drop. METHODS: PARTICIPANTS were asked to walk for 5
min at their self-selected walking speed under 3 conditions:
(i) with shoes only;
(ii) with a posterior ankle-foot orthosis; (iii) with an anterior ankle-foot
orthosis. Spatio-temporal gait para-meters (speed, step length and step
frequency) and walking energy cost per unit of distance were assessed for each
walking condition. A visual analogue scale was used to quantify participants'
level of perceived comfort for the 2 orthosis. RESULTS: Gait spatio-temporal
parameters were higher with anterior ankle-foot orthoses than with posterior
ankle-foot orthoses or shoes only. Walking energy cost per unit of distance was
lower with anterior than posterior ankle-foot orthosis or shoes only ((mean +/-
standard error) 3.53 +/- 1.00 vs 3.94 +/- 1.27 and 3.98 +/- 1.53 J.kg-1.m-1
respectively; p < 0.05) and level of perceived comfort was higher with anterior
((mean +/- standard error) 8.00 +/- 1.32) than with posterior ankle-foot orthosis
((mean +/- standard error) 4.52 +/- 2.57; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In people with
foot drop the use of anterior ankle-foot orthoses resulted in lower energy costs
of walking and higher levels of perceived comfort compared with posterior
ankle-foot orthoses. Anterior ankle-foot orthoses may enable people with foot
drop to walk further with less physical effort than posterior ankle-foot orthoses.

Langue : ANGLAIS