Ankle-foot orthosis

These injections can likewise enable patients to wear and use orthotic devices more effectively. Injection into the triceps surae musculature can improve the fit and function of an ankle-foot orthosis by preventing excessive plantar flexor spasticity from pistoning the foot out of the orthosis.49 Injections into severely spastic muscles can also increase patient comfort and ability to perform ADL and hygiene activities. Consider, for example, the patient with severe upper extremity flexor spasticity following a CVA. Local injection of botulinum toxin into the affected muscles may enable the patient to extend his or her elbow, wrist, and fingers, thereby allowing better hand cleansing, ability to dress, decreased pain, and so forth.7... 

Davis, R., Houdayer, T., Andrews, B., and BarriskiU, A. Prolonged closed-loop functional electrical stimulation and andrews ankle-foot orthosis. Artif Organs 1999 23 418 20. 

Houdayer, T., Davis, R. et al.. Prolonged closed-loop standing in paraplegia with implanted cochlear FES-22 stimulator and Andrews ankle-foot orthosis. In Popovid, D. (Ed.) Proceedings of 2nd International Symposium on FES, Burnaby, pp. 168-169,1997. 

Kaufman, K.R., Irby, S.E., Mathewson, J.W. et al.. Energy efficient knee-ankle-foot orthosis, /. Prosthet. Orthot. 8 79-85,1996. 

The first study is an evaluation of an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) or brace such as is used for patients with drop foot (Abu-Hasaballah et al., 1997). Although the orthosis is made of lightweight thermoplastic, many patients still find it heavy and uncomfortable, especially in the summer when the... 

FIGURE 9.2 Finite-element model of an isentropic ankle-foot orthosis demonstrating high-stress regions near inner ankle. The material is theimoplastic. 

FIGURE 93 Ankle-foot orthosis optimized manually to reduce material in regions of low stress. Total weight reduction is approximately 30 percent. 

Abu-Hasaballah, K. S., Nowak, M. D., and Cooper, P. S. (1997), Enhanced solid ankle-foot orthosis design Real-time contact pressures evaluation and finite element analysis, 1997 Advances in Bioengineering, pp. 285-286. 

Ferris DP, Czerniecki JM, and Hannaford B, An ankle-foot orthosis powered by artificial pneumatic muscles. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, vol. 21 2, pp. 189-197,2005. 

Blaya, J. and Herr, H., Adaptive Control of a Variable-Impedance Ankle-Foot Orthosis to Assist Drop-Foot Gait, IEEE Trans. Neural Systems Rehabilitation Engineering, 12(1), 24—31,2004. 

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