The Effects of Plastic Ankle-foot Orthosis on Elderly Stroke Patients

Park, Song Rae; Lee, Sang Il; Chun, Min Ho

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Geriatrics Society 2006;10(3):197-200.
Published online September 30, 2006.

The Effects of Plastic Ankle-foot Orthosis on Elderly Stroke Patients

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. mhchun@amc.seoul.kr

노인 뇌졸중 환자에서 플라스틱 단하지 보조기가 보행 기능에 미치는 효과

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Retraining elderly patients with hemiparesis to walk is a major goal of any stroke rehabilitation program. In particular, an plastic ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) is used to correct a spastic drop foot or equinus foot, which are both commonly seen in spastic stroke related hemiparesis and hemiplegia. This study was performed to investigate the gait pattern with or without plastic AFO in elderly stroke patients. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 20 elderly ambulatory hemiplegic patients. We measured time to walk 10 meters and Berg balance scale (BBS) with or without plastic AFO at the time of admission, 4th week and 12th week.
RESULTS
Time to walk and BBS of the stroke patients with plastic AFO significantly improved on transfer and 4 weeks later. But 12 weeks later, time to walk and BBS with plastic AFO did not improve.
CONCLUSION
The plastic AFO is helpful for the elderly sroke patients to improve walking speed and BBS in early period of in-patient rehabilitation management.

Key Words: Stroke, Ankle-foot orthosis, Walking speed, Berg balance scale