• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.693-699
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• 2001

The use of AFO in the management of patients with hemiplegia has been somewhat controversial. The purpose of the study was to identify the influence of the plastic ankle foot orthoses(AFO) on the characteristics of pelvic tilt in the patients with hemiplegia. Sixteen hemiplegic patients participated. The angle of pelvic tilt were measured using the BROM II . Results showed that the hemiplegia who weared plastic AFO, the angle of pelvic tilt was significantly less than not weared subjects. However. duration of wearing a plastic AFO and the degree of spasticity were not affected to the angle of pelvic tilt. Therefore the patients with hemiplegia should consider using the brace for the right purpose, also need to maintain the mobility of ankle joint while wearing the plastic AFO.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.381-397
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• 2001

In the patients with hemiplegia caused by stroke and TBI. postural sway is increased and open displaced laterally over the non-affected leg, reflecting asymmetry in weight bearing on lower extremities during standing balance. Recovery of symmetric weight bearing and postural stability is an important aim in physical therapy. Plastic AFO has been used for hemiplegic patients in order to help their abnormal walking patterns. Past studies have mainly focused on the AFO influences on hemiplegic walking patterns without balance function approaches. The purpose of this study was to identify the immediate effects of plastic AFO and shoes on the static balance in hemiplegic patients. The scale for static balance were weight bearing on affected leg(%), sway area(mm2), sway path(mm), maximal sway velocity(mm/s), anteroposterior sway angle($^{\circ}$ ), and lateral angle($^{\circ}$ ). Seventeen hemiplegic patients participated in this study: 13 men and 4 women, with an average age of 50.18 years. Static balance was measured using BPM(balance performance monitor; dataprint software version 5.3) under four standing condition namely bare-foot standing. standing in shoes, standing with AFO, and standing in shoes with AFO. In order to assure the statistical significance of the results, an one-way ANOVA, the independent t-test. and a pearson's correlation were applied at the .05 level of significant. The results of this study were as follows: 1) There were statistically significant differences in weight bearing(%) on the static balance between affected leg and non-affected leg(p<.01). 2) There were statistically significant differences in sway reverse frequence(Hz) in standing with AFO between affected leg and non-affected leg(p<.05). 3) Sway area(mm2) on standing in shoes with AFO was lower than bare-foot standing(p<.05), Lateral sway angle($^{\circ}$ ) on standing in shoes with AFO was lower than bare-foot standing and standing in shoes(p<.05). 4) Weight bearing in affected leg was not significantly correlated with postural sway.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2002

In this study, a stress analysis is made fur an ankle foot orthosis (AFO) in the view point of structural stability. The investigated AFO is a solid and standard type. To analyze the stress distribution on the neck of AFO, the maximum AFO angular translation data is obtained by gait analysis. The material test of polypropylene is made to obtain the mechanical properties of AFO. The maximum dorsiflexion appears at the midstance in the gait analysis. The experimental angular translation at the top of AFO is about 10.3$^{\circ}$ at mid stance. Three models of AFO with different width of neck are made and analyzed with ABAQUS 6.1. The stress levels and distributions of 3 different width(W$_1$, W$_2$=0.85W$_1$, W$_3$=0.60W$_1$) AFO are investigated. As a result, the standard type(W$_1$) appears to the maximum stresses at the medial edge of cutout area surrounding ankle joint. The maximum stresses of the narrower type(W$_2$) are occured on medial edge and center of ankle. The narrowest type(W$_3$) appears to the maximum stresses at center of ankle. The maximum stresses become smaller as ankle width of AFO is narrower.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.728-733
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• 2001

The subject of this paper is to perform the basic research to make design guide as finding out the structural characteristics of polypropylene Ankle Foot Orthosis(AFO) for hemiplegics. Target shape of AFO is a solid standard type. In this study we measure ridity as dorsiflexion and thicknesses of AFO with three types of ankle widths and analyze correlation between rigidity and ankle widths, thicknesses. As a result, the rigidity characteristic is specified complex effect of ankle widths and thicknesses.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.33-39
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• 2016

Purpose : The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of plastic ankle foot orthosis on adult post-stroke hemiplegic patients walking ability and balance. Method : The searched for the case controlled clinical trials about the effects of plastic ankle foot orthosis(pAFO) for walking ability and balance using quantitative gait analysis in adult post-stroke patients. Ten trials were selected from Riss4U databases published until June 2016 in Korea. The selected trials contained a control group with pre-test and post-test design, measured walking ability and balance as a dependent variable. Result : The selected ten trials involved a total of 180 patients. The walking speed, cadence, the portion of double limb supporting, stride length on affected side were improved by plastic ankle foot orthosis. Conclusion : The plastic ankle foot orthosis has some evidence to improve the walking ability and balance in post-stroke hemiplegic patients.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.96-107
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• 2005

Objective: The purpose of this study were to investigate the standing balance, dynamic activity in hemiplegic patients according to the types of ankle-foot orthosis(AFO) and to determine the most effective type of AFO for gait training. Method: A prospective study was performed for 16 patients with hemiplegia who was able to walk independently. Static balance and dynamic activity were compared in two condition : 1) barefoot and SPAFO, 2) barefoot and HPAFO. Static balance and dynamic activity characteristics were evaluated by Active Balance while they were standing with in two condition AFO and barefoot. Results: There were significant difference in standing balance between barefoot and wearing SPAFO and HPAFO(p<0.05). There were significant difference in dynamic activity balance between barefoot and wearing SPAFO and HPAFO(p<0.05). There were significant difference in gait speed between barefoot and wearing SPAFO and HPAFO(p<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that wearing SPAFO and HPAFO gave fair amount of improvement to balance and gait ability of hemiplegic patients.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2007

In this study, we developed an active ankle-foot orthosis(AAFO) which can control dorsi/ plantar flexion of the ankle joint to prevent foot drop and toe drag during walking. 3D gait analyses were performed on five healthy subjects under three different gait conditions: the normal gait without AFO, the SAFO gait with the conventional plastic AFO, and the AAFO gait with the developed AFO. As a result, the developed AAFO preeminently induced the normal gait compared to the SAFO. Additionally, AAFO prevented foot drop by proper plantarflexion during loading response and provided enough plantarflexion moment as a driving force to walk forward by sufficient push-off during pre-swing. AAFO also could prevent toe drag by proper dorsiflexion during swing phase. These results indicate that the developed AAFO may have more clinical benefits to treat foot drop and toe drag, compared to conventional AFOs, and also may be useful in patients with other orthotic devices.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.161-175
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of HPAFO(Hinged Plastic Ankle Foot orthosis) and SPAFO(Solid Plastic Ankle Foot Orthosis) on standing balance and step moving in hemiplegia patients. Twenty hemiplegic patients were either inpatient or outpatient at the Rehabilitation medicine, MokPo J General Hospital and JeonJu J Medical Center from July 15, 2002 to September 15, 2002. Patients were able to ambulate independently for at least 10 meters and to stand independently for at least 10 minutes with balance measurement tool. The static balance and dynamic activity measurement was determined by SAKAI active balancer(Japan) with wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO. The static balance and dynamic activity analysis was analyzed by independent t-test. The results were as follows: 1. There were no significant difference in body weight bearing percent between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.05). 2. There were significant difference in whole path length between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p<0.05). 3. There were significant difference in Effective Value Area between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). 4. There were significant difference in repeated functional time between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). 5. There were significant difference in cadence between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). The result of this study showed that wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO gave fair amount of improvement to static standing balance and dynamic movement ability of hemiplegic patients. The comparison result showed significant differences in between HPAFO and SPAHFO. The result of this study had a general limitation due to the restricted number of cases. The future study needs more detailed research and comparison with various variance between these two orthoses.