One important goal of rehabilitation for persons poststroke is gait reconstruction. Movement of lower limb during stance phase can be considered as an inverted pendulum. To reconstruct gait, it is crucial to inhibit excessive and irregular muscle contractions, promote harmonious muscular activities, and control adequate range of motion of joints of the lower limb as early as possible. Orthoses are indispensable for gait re-learning both in the acute and sub-acute periods.
Orthoses can help compensate for both kinematic and kinetic disorders of the ankle, the knee, and the hip, as long as the orthotic functions, stiffness and range of motion, are appropriately adjusted for each individual. Moreover, orthoses can be adjusted to the difficulty levels of each individual in order to enable more ideal gait training. Therefore, both appropriate selection of the AFO’ functions and interventions are essential for good orthotic therapy.
In this instructional course, the basic knowledge of orthotic function and how AFOs can improve pathological gait are explained in detail. Also, some clinical cases are introduced to support this knowledge including examples of evidence-based practice. Furthermore, clinically beneficial ways of assessment and effective interventions using orthoses will be demonstrated with objective information including kinematic and kinetic data measured by 3D motion capture systems including EMG data.
Statement of the objective / learning objectives
• To provide an overview of gait rehabilitation using orthoses for persons poststroke.
• To better understand effective manner of evaluation, intervention, and adjustment of orthotic functions specific to persons poststroke in gait rehabilitation.
