Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) may be used in rehabilitation and assistance of people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). One significant application is facilitating physical exercise, mainly when combining FES mechanical platforms, such as tricycles. However, there are still technical challenges cycling protocols, improving control performance. Here we show how passive elements knee orthos...

Knee orthotic devices are widely proposed by physicians and medical practitioners for preventive or therapeutic objectives in relation with their effects, usually known as to stabilize joint or restrict ranges of motion. The objectives of this work are to characterize the performance of knee orthoses using a Finite Element Model of a braced human leg. The interface properties of the model are c...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of prefabricated foot orthoses and rocker-sole footwear on spatiotemporal parameters, hip and knee kinematics, and plantar pressures in people with first metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS A total of 102 people with first MTP joint OA were randomly allocated to receive prefabricated foot orthoses or rocker-sole footwear. The immediat...

Children with spina bifida develop a wide variety of congenital and acquired orthopedic deformities. Among these are hip deformities such as contracture, subluxation, or dislocation. Patients may also have problems with the knee joint, such as knee flexion or extension contracture, knee valgus deformity, or late knee instability and pain. In addition, rotational deformities of the lower extremi...

A difficult clinical decision to be made when treating a paraplegic patient is deciding if walking is a realistic goal, if orthoses should be prescribed, and what the functional outcome will be. It has been demonstrated that the en­ ergy expenditure for paraplegics, utilizing a crutch assisted swing-through gait pattern, is markedly elevated. Many patients have learned to walk with crutches and...

Osteoarthritis of the knee is a debilitating condition affecting increasing numbers of individuals each year. One option for treatment is orthotic knee braces, but a little independent reviews have taken place to date on their relative outcomes for users. This study therefore evaluates the efficacy of different types of knee orthoses (braces) with regard to key aspects of use, including gait pa...

BACKGROUND Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease of adults worldwide. Its incidence rises with age. Both intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors promote its development. In men aged 60 to 64, the right knee is more commonly affected; in women, the right and left knees are affected with nearly equal frequency. METHODS The PubMed, Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were selec...

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, and affects approximately one-third of the elderly population. The medial tibiofemoral compartment is most commonly involved. This is due, in part, to the ground reaction force vector passing medial to the knee joint center during gait. This distance increases with genu varus malalignment, resulting in an increased external adductio...

BACKGROUND Patellofemoral pain (PFP) is a prevalent, often recalcitrant and multifactorial knee pain condition. One method to optimize treatment outcome is to tailor treatments to the patient's presenting characteristics. Foot orthoses and hip exercises are two such treatments for PFP with proven efficacy yet target different ends of the lower limb with different proposed mechanisms of effect. ...