Effectiveness of Ankle Foot Orthosis to improve walking speed in patients with stroke

Abstract

Background: Stroke is a condition that causes damaged to the brain either by blockage in the blood vessels or rupture of the blood vessels. It is one of the leading causes of death. Objectives: To find out the effectiveness of Ankle Foot Orthosis to improve walking speed in patients with stroke. Methodology: Experimental study design was used in this study. 20 patients with stroke were randomly assigned into one group among them 20 patients were assigned into pre-test group without Ankle foot orthosis and post-test group with Ankle Foot Orthosis. Total treatment sessions were twenty four comprising of one session per week. Outcome measurement tools: 10 meters walking test has used to measure step length, stride length, cadence and timed up and go (TUG) has used to measure mobility. Analysis of data: Inferential statistics such as paired t test was done for walking speed and time up and go by using SPSS version 20. Results: After observing pre-test and post-test score the significant improvement was found only in 10 meters walking test. P-value was <0.05. But in gait speed there was a mean difference. Conclusion: These results showed statistically significant value on 10 meters walking test but there was a mean difference in gait speed, which indicate that Based on this investigation, we discovered that AFO helped stroke patients with their cadence, stride length, and step length. AFO can also help stroke patients with ankle dorsiflexor weakness or hyper plantarflexion issues because it improves the sagittal plane angle of the ankle, knee, and hip Ankle foot orthosis can be an effective therapeutic approach for stroke patients to increase walking speed.