Ten participants without physical impairment walked with 0 kg, 11.5 kg, and 23.0 kg of added weight equally distributed about the torso in a harness. At each weight level, the participants walked at slow, normal, and fast self-selected walking speeds. We examined the roll-over characteristics by determining the ankle-foot and knee-ankle-foot roll-over shapes. These shapes, which are the effecti...

Background and highlights are presented concerning the development of a new orthotic system judged to be "the most outstanding innovation in prosthetics and/or orthotics practice" during the 1986-1989 period. The first Brian Blatchford Prize was awarded at the Sixth World Congress of ISPO held in Kobe, Japan. November 12-17, 1989. The new development selected as most deserving of this award con...

Anterior knee pain is a common presenting complaint, and in many cases no identifiable cause can be found. In these circumstances it is commonly known as anterior knee pain syndrome or patellofemoral pain syndrome. The management for this condition is most commonly non-operative. Treatment strategies include physiotherapy, pharmacotherapy, orthoses and combinations of the above. There are many ...

Excessive hip motion has been linked to lower extremity pathology. Foot orthoses are commonly used to control motion within lower extremity joints when lower extremity pathology and dysfunction are present. Few studies have investigated the effect of foot orthoses on hip angular kinematics during functional activities. Eighteen females and 18 males performed a vertical jump with and without a p...

All orthotic equipment must operate at the highest possible standards of safety and, should structural failure of a loaded component occur, there must be a minimal possibility of injury to the user. Because of the lack of definitive data on the in-service loading of lower limb orthoses it is not possible to base a test procedure on "real" loading conditions. In this paper a method of destructiv...

Custom-made and off-the-shelf functional knee orthoses from four manufacturers were evaluated. Anterior tibial translation testing was performed using a pneumatic mechanical surrogated knee. The mechanical surrogate was interfaced with a servohydraulic materials testing system, which applied all anterior/posterior displacements to an ultimate anterior load of 400 N. Comparison of the individual...

Fifty patients with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy were included in this retrospective study which compared visual assessment of gait to three-dimensional (3D) gait analysis. Inter-observer variability was evaluated as well. Inclusion criteria comprehended independent ambulation (i.e. without assistive devices or orthoses). All subjects went through 3D gait analysis at the Gait Analysis Labora...

Peripheral Neuropathy (PN) is reported among the risk factors for falls (Richardson and Hurvitz 1995). It is also reported that postural sway of individuals with peripheral neuropathy increases substantially (Horak, Dickstein et al. 2002) which is interpreted by many as the state of instability (Jeka 1997; Dickstein, Shupert et al. 2001) that may lead to falls. Ankle Foot Orthoses (AFOs) are co...