Ankle Foot Orthosis

The use of an AFO is very common when a person suffers from a drop foot. The AFO is nothing but the Ankle Foot Orthosis, a device that includes the ankle and the foot to help a person to walk with a near normal gait.

Drop foot is a disorder in which a person is unable to or has difficulty elevating their foot at the ankle joint. This could make walking tough to those who suffer from drop foot, as the toes can tend to drag the floor, that may result in the patient stumbling or becoming unstable on their feet. Individuals with drop foot compensate for the situation by utilizing the muscles in their hip to pick the foot up above the ground, this is known as a step page gait, or conversely they may compensate by swinging the leg to the outside so that the foot clears the floor, that is labeled as circumduction.

As a remedy for drop foot, numerous individuals employ a drop foot brace, also labeled as an ankle foot orthosis (AFO) to help patients to possess a more normal gait. There are several different kinds of braces utilized in the management of drop foot, the kind of brace used will depend upon a patients own particular condition. In treatment, an AFO can be employed in several different solutions to benefit the wearer; in order to have a far better understanding of how a drop foot brace works an individual needs to understand the movement in the ankle and foot areas.

The AFO brace can be used to either provide more stability to a person or it can also be used to provide more mobility to a person. This will depend on the age of the person. The functional need of the patient will also be taken into consideration when the Ankle Foot Orthosis is fabricated.