The objective of this study was to develop guidelines for the prescription of ankle-foot, knee, wrist-hand and elbow orthoses for patients with neurological disorders. The study is part of a more comprehensive study focusing on the development of clinical guidelines for the prescription of these orthoses in a wider patient population. Evidence from literature (reviews, randomized controlled tri...

The role of the family physician in managing knee pain is expanding as recent literature supports nonsurgical management for many patients. Effective treatment depends on the etiology of knee pain. Oral analgesics-most commonly nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and acetaminophen-are used initially in combination with physical therapy to manage the most typical causes of chronic knee pain. Th...

The purpose of this study was to determine the cause and effect relationship between tibial internal rotation and pronation of the foot during walking and heel-toe running. This would allow predictions of orthotic effectiveness in reducing knee pain related to excessive internal tibial rotation. Kinematic and force plate data were collected from twenty subjects performing ten running and ten wa...

Background. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease which influences the performance of the knee joint. Moreover, the force and moments applied on the joint increase in contrast to normal subjects. Various types of knee orthoses have been designed to solve the mentioned problems. However, there are other problems in terms of distal migration during walking and the alignment of the orthosis which canno...

Fifty athletes with resistant symptoms, were jointly assessed by physician and podiatrist. Commonest symptoms were foot pains (38%), anterior knee pain (34%), ankle pains including chronic sprains (30%) and Achilles pain (16%). Simple clinical examinations were made for gait pattern, in which overpronation was specifically noted in 46%, posture, leg length and configuration, rearfoot and forefo...

BACKGROUND Intra-articular glucocorticoid treatment is frequently used in arthritic disorders. Postinjection rest has been shown to improve the outcome of knee injections. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether better treatment results might also be achieved by a similar postinjection regimen for the wrist, which is non-weightbearing. METHODS 117 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and wrist synov...

BACKGROUND Range of motion deficits of the lower extremity occur in about the half of the children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Over time, these impairments can cause joint deformities and deviations in the children's gait pattern, leading to limitations in moblity. Preventing a loss of range of motion is important in order to reduce secondary activity limitations and joint deformities. Su...

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative condition that critically affects locomotor ability and quality of life and, the particularly prevalent in senior population. The current review presents gait biomechanics conceptual framework for designing active knee orthoses to prevent remediate OA. Constant excessive loading diminishes joint articular cartilage therefore, measures reduce kinetic st...

BACKGROUND Traditionally, the anatomical knee joint is locked in extension when walking with a conventional knee-ankle-foot orthosis. A powered knee-ankle-foot orthosis was developed to provide restriction of knee flexion during stance phase and active flexion and extension of the knee during swing phase of gait. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine differences of the powered ...