The Effect of Modified Floor Reaction Ankle Foot Orthoses onWalking Abilities in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Objectives: this study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a modified floor reaction anklefoot orthosis (frafo) design on gait performance in children with cerebral palsy.methods: eight children with cerebral palsy wore a modified frafo bilaterally for six weeks. motionanalysis was used to assess the immediate effectiveness of the orthosis on improving gait and alsofollowing six weeks of gradual orthosis use. primary outcome measures were walking speed, cadence andstride length, plus hip, knee and ankle joint ranges of motion. a paired t test was used to compareprimary outcome measures.results: cadence, stride length and walking speed were all significantly increased when the childrenwore the modified frafo (p = <0.001for speed and stride length and p=0.005 for cadence). the childrendemonstrated a statistically significant reduction in ankle rom when using the modified frafo. themean knee joint rom was increased from 36.5±13.32 degrees when walking with an orthosis at baselineto 43.5±1.19 degrees when walking with an orthosis after six weeks of use. children with the modifiedfrafo also had decreased hip flexion angle at initial contact and an extension shift during stance phasefollowing 6 weeks of orthosis use compared to when initially donning it.discussion: children with cerebral palsy can benefit from an improvement in gait parameters whenwalking with a modified frafo.