• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.155-176
• /
• 2005

There is some evidence that one of major factors to produce plantar fasciitis depends on the magnitude of the foot arch strain. The orthotics that can reduce the foot arch strain during locomotion may be effective to prevent or treat plantar fasciitis. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of control condition and three types of foot orthotics on 3-dimensional foot arch strain that can produce plantar fasciitis during treadmill level and uphill walking and running. Sixteen male subjects are recruited and the arch length and height strain according to three types of foot orthotics with respect to control condition were measured by using two digital video cameras. The first hypothesis which the comfort of foot orthotics would be increased from arch pad, half length orthotics to full length orthotics was mostly accepted. It suggested that the types of the foot orthotics could be properly prescribed according foot regions that is pain or abnormal. The second hypothesis which the foot arch strain can be reduced by foot orthotics during level heel-toe walking and running and the third hypothesis which the foot arch strain can be reduced by foot orthotics during uphill heel-toe walking and running were rejected. The foot arch length and height strain during walking and running showed small and subject-specific characteristics and could not be optimal biomechanical variable to prove the overall comfort. The forth hypothesis which the foot arch strain cannot be reduced by foot orthotics during uphill toe walking and running was accepted. With the foot arch length and height strain during uphill toe walking and running the windlass mechanism suggested by Hicks can be explained successfully and excessive uphill toe walking and running can be one of cause of plantar fasciitis. The dynamic investigation on the foot arch such as walking and running should be carefully observed with integrated insights considering ligaments and foot bones as well as plantar fascia, extrinsic muscles and tendons, and intrinsic muscles and tendons.

• Physical Therapy Korea
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.16-23
• /
• 2012

This study examined the effects of custom-made foot orthotics on the temporal-spatial gait parameters in children with cerebral palsy. Twenty spastic bilateral cerebral palsy (spastic CP) children (11 boys and 9 girls) participated in this study. GAITRite was used to examine the velocity, cadence, step length differential, step length, stride length, stance time, single support time, double support time, base of support, and toe angle while walking with and without foot orthotics. The differences in temporal-spatial parameters were analyzed using paired t-test. The significance level was set at .05. The velocity, cadence, both step lengths, both stride lengths, both bases of support and right toe angle significantly increased when the children with spastic CP with foot orthotics compared to without foot orthotics (p<.05). The step length differential between the two extremities, left stance time and left single support time, significantly decreased with foot orthotics (p<.05). Right stance time, right single support time, both double support times and left toe angle showed little change (p>.05). This study demonstrated that foot orthotics were beneficial for children with spastic CP as a gait assistance tool.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.31 no.11
• /
• pp.1115-1123
• /
• 2007

The foot plays an important role in supporting the body and keeping body balance. An abnormal walking habit breaks the balance of the human body as well as the function of the foot. The foot orthotics which is designed to consider biomechanics effectively distributes the load of the human body on the sole of the foot. In this paper, gait analysis was performed for three male subjects wearing the orthotics. In this study, three male subjects were selected. The experimental apparatus consists of a plantar pressure analysis system and digital EMG system. The gait characteristics are simulated by ADAMS/LifeMOD. The COP (Center of Pressure), EMG and ground reaction force were investigated. As a result of gait analysis, the path of COP was improved and muscle activities were decreased with orthotics on the abnormal walking subjects.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.401-412
• /
• 2015

Objective : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of hip joint exercises and orthotics on RCSP, ankle's range of motion, and core muscle strength of middle school students with pes planus. Method : Out of the original pool of 200 students, 60 students with pes planus (RCSP < -2) were selected for the study. The selected 60 students were then divided into four groups. The first group was a combined orthotics and exercise group (12 students), the second was the orthotics-only group (9 students), the third was the exercise-only group (8 students), and the last was the control group (10 students). Exercise groups worked out twice a week for 60 minutes per session over 8 weeks. The independent variables were corrective hip joint exercises and orthotics. The dependant variables consisted of kinematic and kinetic variables. The kinematic variables were RCSP, and ankle's range of motion (dorsiflexion and plantarflexion). The kinetic variables were muscles forces that consist in core muscle strength, which are hip joint adduction, abduction, and flexion muscles forces. Statistical analysis was performed via SPSS 18.0 with multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and a paired t-test was used. Results : The left foot was more responsive to the treatments, both exercise and orthotics, than the right foot. RCSP improved significantly in the left foot for the first and third groups. Only the first group significantly improved hip joint adduction, abduction, and flexion muscles' strengths. As for the ankle's range of motion of the left foot, plantarflexion showed improvement when treated with exercise, orthotics, or both. Conclusion : This study found that exercise is more effective in correcting RCSP and foot orthotics is more effective in reinforcing core muscle strength. Future studies should expand on these results to examine the relationship between the ankle, hip, and pelvis.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.67-73
• /
• 2010

The foot performs an important function in supporting the body and keeping body balance. An abnormal walking habit breaks the balance of the human body as well as the normal function of the foot. The influence of a flatfoot(pes planus) occupies a considerable portion of the various causes resulting in the wrong walking habit. But, little studies has been done by the functional foot orthotics for the flat foot. The object of this study, therefore, is to propose a new approach method to reveal the effects of the improvement of the foot function by using orthotics. The essential point of this study is to measure and analyze the change of ankle angle in the sagittal plane for flat foot subjects wearing the orthotics. Before and after wearing the functional orthotics, the gait analysis of flat foot subjects was conducted in three experimental aspects : the change of ankle angle, the change of the total Ankle ROM and the difference of left & right ankle angle in the sagittal plane. 1. The average ankle angle differences of before-and-after wearing the orthotics have declined like this; left : $2.71^{\circ}$, right: $1.91^{\circ}$ (p<0.05). 2. Total ankle ROM also showed decrease in both sides while the left side's is rather slight; left : $0.57^{\circ}$, right : $2.07^{\circ}$ (p<0.05). 3. The difference of left and right ankle angle in the sagittal plane decreased by $0.71^{\circ}$ (p<0.05). In result, it is confirmed that the functional foot orthotics have a significant effect on mechanical movement of ankle joint for flat foot. it is expected that this paper will be further studied and improved as a practical estimation method in the research on the effect of foot-orthotics.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.65-79
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study was firstly to investigate correctional function of custom semi-rigid foot orthotics for excessively pronated people during gait by observing comfort, navicular movement and leg muscles' activity according to short-term and mid-term wearing duration and secondly to understand positive and/or negative point of view of a recently proposed paradigm related to foot orthotics more profoundly. Sixteen subjects who showed excessive pronation at navicular drop test were recruited for this study. Custom semi-rigid foot orthotics were made fitting for foot characteristics of the subjects by podiatry division of Otto Bock Korea company. While wearing the foot orthotics for two months, comfort of wearing were questioned and vertical navicular movement and electromyography of leg muscles during gait were measured at the condition of both immediately after and 2 months after including a control condition, respectively. The subjects were required to walk on a treadmill at the speed of 1.5m/s and four digital video camera filmed the movement of navicular process at the speed of 60 frames/s. In conclusion, in excessively pronated group continuous increase of comfort from short-term to mid-term wearing of custom foot orthotics is assumed to be closely related with short-term and mid term correctional action, of which are consisted the decrease of the range of navicular drop and navicular raisins- the faster timing of minimum navicular position occurring, and the decrease of leg muscles' activities. This conclusion could lead to positively accept new paradigm related to foot orthotics suggested by Nigg and the author suggest that in the future study the variable which could observe navicular movement would be one of major variables to study preferred path of skeleton in the paradigm.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.241-246
• /
• 2012

Purpose: We investigated the effect of postural stability and balance with foot orthotics in hemiplegic patients. Methods: The subjects enrolled in this study were 16 hemiplegic patients who were examined for balance ability, weight distribution, and limits of stability with or without foot orthotics insole. Balance was measured according to a stance position by BIORESCUE: static balance open eyes (SEO), static balance close eyes (SEC), dynamic balance open eyes (DEO), dynamic balance close eyes (DEC), right and left weight distribution (RLWD), anterior and posterior weight distribution (APWD) and limit of stability (LOS). The data were analyzed with SPSS window version 18.0 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: The results were of significant changes to the SEO (p<0.05), RLWD (p<0.05), APWD (p<0.05), and LOS (p<0.05). The SEC, DEO and DEC were not found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: It was found that foot orthotics affected the balance for hemiplegic patients. Therefore, it is thought to help fall prevention to measure the balance ability.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.97-107
• /
• 2017

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of Korean Medical treatments combined with Orthotics on patients's center of gravity with flat foot. Methods : We reviewed the medical records of 24 patients diagnosed with flat foot. They had received Korean medical treatments combined with Foot Orthotics. To estimate the efficacy in rebalancing of body, we analyzed the changes in center of gravity. Results : Among the 24 patients, 13 were male and 11 were female. There was no statistically significant change in frontal angle at the time of treatment. But side angle was changed statistically significant(P=0.009). There was no difference according to sex of male and female. Conclusion : In this study, We found that Korean Medical treatments with Foot Orthotics was effective for correction of patients's center of gravity with flat foot.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.95-100
• /
• 2005

Objective: The purpose of this study is to report chronic sciatica paitient with HIVD of L-spine who improveded by orthotics Methods: once we treated the patient with acupuncture, nagatives, chu-na after that added with orthotics, We compared each effect. The effect was evaluated by progress of symtoms and Visual Anlogue Scale Results & Conclusion :After treatment of orthotics sciatica was reduced in the score of VAS from 7to3.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.115-124
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of customized foot orthotics on lower extremity muscle activity and fatigue during march in combat boots. Four volunteers with normal foot and five volunteers with excessive pronation foot among soldiers on service were fitted with foot orthotics. The electromyography signal from activity of low extremity muscles were collected with surface electromyography device during walking on the treadmill. The walk on the treadmill was performed with a speed of 4.5 km/h. The experiment design for reseach wes composed two experimentation. The first experiment was to examine the muscle activity of lower extremity between normal foot and excessive pronator foot during march. The second experiment was to examine the muscle activity of lower extremity between wearing orthotics and no wearing orthotics. These data were analyzed by the averaged integral EMG and the mean power frequency. The analyzed results were compared by independent T-test method and paired T-test method of SPSS(windows version 12.0). The result of the study were the muscle activity on pronator foot tend to increase during march but a statistically significant increase in muscle fatigue of vastus lateralis and fibularis longus. A statistically significant decrease in muscle activity of anterior tibialis and fibularis longus and fatigue occurred using the customized foot orthotics in volunteers with excessive pronation foot compared to volunteers with normal foot. Clinically, the application of orthotics for the soldiers with excessive pronation foot appears to delay muscle fatigue and prevent from variable foot injuries. This may contribute to enhancing fighting efficiency.