Article

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.
The purpose of this study was
to determine its effect on the physiological cost index, walking speed and the
distance walked in people with poliomyelitis compared to when walking with a
knee-ankle-foot orthosis with drop lock knee joints. STUDY DESIGN: Quasi experimental study. METHODS: Seven subjects with poliomyelitis volunteered for
the study and undertook gait analysis with both types of knee-ankle-foot
orthosis. RESULTS: Walking with the powered knee-ankle-foot orthosis
significantly reduced walking speed (p = 0.015) and the distance walked (p =
0.004), and also, it did not improve physiological cost index values (p = 0.009)
compared to walking with the locked knee-ankle-foot orthosis. CONCLUSION: Using a
powered knee-ankle-foot orthosis did not significantly improve any of the primary
outcome measures during walking for poliomyelitis subjects. CLINICAL RELEVANCE:
This powered knee-ankle-foot orthosis design did not improve the physiological
cost index of walking for people with poliomyelitis when compared to walking with
a knee-ankle-foot orthosis with drop lock knee joints.
This may have been due to
the short training period used or the bulky design and additional weight of the
powered orthosis. Further research is therefore warranted.
CI - (c) The International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics 2015.

Langue : ANGLAIS