Study of gait rehabilitation of hemiplegic patients in early stage of rehabilitation using ankle-foot-orthoses

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Gait training at the early stage of rehabilitation is quite important for hemiplegic patients. Orthotic assist during gait is indispensable at this stage and the adjustability of functions of AFOs to the condition of each patient is desirable. However, there is no AFO whose function can be changed easily. The purpose of this study is to investigate the function of AFOs for acute hemiplegic patients.A trial AFO was developed and used for the gait training of acute hemiplegic patients. The trial AFO consisted of a spring that produced the assist moment. The range of motion of the ankle joint and magnitude of the dorsiflexion assist moment of the trial AFO could be changed easily. The gaits with AFO were measured by three dimensional gait analysis system (VICON512) and force plates. As results, it was found that the magnitude of assist moment necessary for acute hemiplegic patients was much smaller than for chronic patients. And it was also found that the repulse force of the assist spring was sometimes harmful for acute hemiplegic gait. Based on these results the desirable specification of an AFO for gait training of acute hemiplegic patients was discussed. Oil damper which generates the reaction force to plantarflexion but does not generate the repulse force is second possibility for the assist device of the AFO for acute hemiplegic patients. An AFO with oil damper will be developed in the future.