Investigation of the ankle foot orthoses footplates stiffness

Abstract

Carbon fiber Ankle Foot Orthoses (AFOs) are widely used to help walking the patients having so called foot drop or similar diseases or just to improve walking performance. AFO’s general and its footplate stiffness’s have the most effect on their functionality, however usually the whole AFO’s rigidity is taken into account. The article describes the results of experimental investigation of the general and local stiffness of five different manufacturers carbon fiber AFO’s footplates toe and heel ends. It is shown that the near same size AFO’s footplates toe end different zones stiffness may differ from 2 to 3 times and heel end  stiffness even by 7 times, what would definitely  have significant effect on the patient’s gait parameters. Thus when designing and manufacturing AFO’s dedicated to particular patient it is necessary to evaluate not only the general rigidity of the whole AFO, but also its footplate stiffness.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.23.6.16901