Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.

Passive ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) are often prescribed for children with cerebral palsy (CP) to assist locomotion, but predicting how specific device designs will impact energetic demand during gait remains challenging. Powered AFOs have been shown to reduce energy costs of walking in unimpaired ad...

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Main Authors: Michael Rosenberg, Katherine M Steele
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5509139?pdf=render
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author Michael Rosenberg
Katherine M Steele
author_facet Michael Rosenberg
Katherine M Steele
author_sort Michael Rosenberg
collection DOAJ
description Passive ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) are often prescribed for children with cerebral palsy (CP) to assist locomotion, but predicting how specific device designs will impact energetic demand during gait remains challenging. Powered AFOs have been shown to reduce energy costs of walking in unimpaired adults more than passive AFOs, but have not been tested in children with CP. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential impact of powered and passive AFOs on muscle demand and recruitment in children with CP and crouch gait. We simulated gait for nine children with crouch gait and three typically-developing children with powered and passive AFOs. For each AFO design, we computed reductions in muscle demand compared to unassisted gait. Powered AFOs reduced muscle demand 15-44% compared to unassisted walking, 1-14% more than passive AFOs. A slower walking speed was associated with smaller reductions in absolute muscle demand for all AFOs (r2 = 0.60-0.70). However, reductions in muscle demand were only moderately correlated with crouch severity (r2 = 0.40-0.43). The ankle plantarflexor muscles were most heavily impacted by the AFOs, with gastrocnemius recruitment decreasing 13-73% and correlating with increasing knee flexor moments (r2 = 0.29-0.91). These findings support the potential use of powered AFOs for children with crouch gait, and highlight how subject-specific kinematics and kinetics may influence muscle demand and recruitment to inform AFO design.
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spelling doaj.art-2e8c0fe8394b4c37bc1d0d428e25b2032022-12-22T00:14:12ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032017-01-01127e018021910.1371/journal.pone.0180219Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.Michael RosenbergKatherine M SteelePassive ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) are often prescribed for children with cerebral palsy (CP) to assist locomotion, but predicting how specific device designs will impact energetic demand during gait remains challenging. Powered AFOs have been shown to reduce energy costs of walking in unimpaired adults more than passive AFOs, but have not been tested in children with CP. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential impact of powered and passive AFOs on muscle demand and recruitment in children with CP and crouch gait. We simulated gait for nine children with crouch gait and three typically-developing children with powered and passive AFOs. For each AFO design, we computed reductions in muscle demand compared to unassisted gait. Powered AFOs reduced muscle demand 15-44% compared to unassisted walking, 1-14% more than passive AFOs. A slower walking speed was associated with smaller reductions in absolute muscle demand for all AFOs (r2 = 0.60-0.70). However, reductions in muscle demand were only moderately correlated with crouch severity (r2 = 0.40-0.43). The ankle plantarflexor muscles were most heavily impacted by the AFOs, with gastrocnemius recruitment decreasing 13-73% and correlating with increasing knee flexor moments (r2 = 0.29-0.91). These findings support the potential use of powered AFOs for children with crouch gait, and highlight how subject-specific kinematics and kinetics may influence muscle demand and recruitment to inform AFO design.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5509139?pdf=render
spellingShingle Michael Rosenberg
Katherine M Steele
Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.
PLoS ONE
title Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.
title_full Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.
title_fullStr Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.
title_full_unstemmed Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.
title_short Simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically-developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait.
title_sort simulated impacts of ankle foot orthoses on muscle demand and recruitment in typically developing children and children with cerebral palsy and crouch gait
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5509139?pdf=render
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