Objective: To examine the relative effects of footwear and an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) on hemiplegic gait.
Design: A case series with three contrasting conditions: walking without footwear, with footwear alone, and with footwear and an AFO. Spatio-temporal parameters reflecting walking performance were analysed using an analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Patients: Five patients with hemiplegia and reduced mobility following stroke.
Setting: A specialist rehabilitation centre.
Intervention: Wearing either footwear alone, or footwear with an AFO.
Measures: Video recordings of gait were subjected to a kinematic analysis to determine spatio-temporal parameters.
Results: Stride length was increased by an average of 5 cm when wearing footwear. An additional 5-cm increase was also observed when wearing an AFO. Swing velocity was also affected by the manipulation.
Conclusions: The appropriate comparative baseline for assessing the efficacy of an AFO is subjects walking with existing footwear and not barefoot.
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