Embracing additive manufacture: implications for foot and ankle orthosis design

Embracing additive manufacture: implications for foot and ankle orthosis design

BACKGROUND The design of foot and ankle orthoses is currently limited by the methods used to fabricate the devices, particularly in terms of geometric freedom and potential to include innovative new features. Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, where objects are constructed via a series of sub-millimetre layers of a substrate material, may present the opportunity to overcome these limitat...

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Design and Additive Fabrication of Foot and Ankle-foot Orthoses

Foot and ankle-foot orthoses are prescribed in order to promote mobility through supporting and/or realigning the lower leg and alleviating pain in the foot in different parts of the gait cycle. This paper will outline new approaches to the design and manufacture of personalised foot and ankle-foot orthoses (FO and AFO) using additive fabrication technology. The research is addressing the need ...

Newly designed computer controlled knee-ankle-foot orthosis (Intelligent Orthosis).

The authors have developed a knee-ankle-foot orthosis with a joint unit that controls knee movements using a microcomputer (Intelligent Orthosis). The Intelligent Orthosis was applied to normal subjects and patients, and gait analysis was performed. In the gait cycle, the ratio of the stance phase to the swing phase was less in gait with the knee locked using a knee-ankle-foot orthosis than in ...

Use of bivalved ankle-foot orthosis in neuropathic foot and ankle lesions.

The neuropathic foot is a common complication of diabetes mellitus and is associated with development of chronic ulcers and Charcot joints. Treatment of these complications presents a complex management task. This report presents long-term follow-up data on 16 patients with neuropathic changes who were treated with a total contact, laminated, bivalved, rocker-bottom-soled ankle-foot orthosis (T...