Effects of carbon versus plastic ankle foot orthoses on gait outcomes and energy cost in patients with chronic stroke.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the walking performances of hemiplegic subjects with chronic stroke under 3 conditions: with a new standard carbon fibre ankle foot orthosis (C-AFO), with a personal custom-made plastic AFO (P-AFO), and without any orthosis (No-AFO).

DESIGN

Randomized, controlled crossover design.

PATIENTS

Fifteen chronic patients with stroke (3 women  and 12 men, 59 [10] years, 13 [15] years since injury).

METHODS

Patients performed 3 randomized sessions (with C-AFO, P-AFO, no-AFO), consisting of a 6-min walk test (6MWT) with VO2 measurement and a clinical gait analysis. Energy cost (Cw), walking speed, spatio-temporal, kinetic, and kinematic variables were measured.

RESULTS

No significant differences were found between the C-AFO and P-AFO conditions. Distance and walking speed in the 6MWT increased by 12% and 10% (p < 0.001) and stride width decreased by -8.7% and -13% (p < 0.0001) with P-AFO and C-AFO compared with the No-AFO condition. Cw decreased by 15% (p < 0.002), stride length increased by 10% (p < 0.01), step length on affected leg increased by 8% (p < 0.01), step length on contralateral leg by 13% (p < 0.01), and swing time on the contralateral leg increased by 6% (p < 0.01) with both AFO compared with the No-AFO condition.

CONCLUSION

The use of an off-the-shelf composite AFO (after a short habituation period) in patients with chronic stroke immediately improved energy cost and gait outcomes to the same extent as their usual custom-made AFO.