Assessment of Five-Foot Plantar Morphological Pressure Points of Children with Cerebral Palsy Using or Not Dynamic Ankle Foot Orthosis.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Guner, Senem Alsancak, Serap Güven, Enver Özgün, Ali Koray
Editor	Brunner, Reinald
Copyright Year	2023
Abstract	People with spastic cerebral palsy (CP) often experience a decline in gait function and flexion. The children’s posture and hip strategy, which leads to knee flexion, predisposes these children to increased contact area in the medial foot region. This study investigated the use of DAFO (dynamic ankle-foot orthosis) prescribed to patients with cerebral palsy (CP) to determine the plantar pressure distribution with orthosis use. Eight children with spastic CP (age 4–12 years) were classified as Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels I-II with a maximum spasticity level of 3 in their ankle muscles according to the Modified Ashworth Scale. We assessed the plantar distribution by using eight WalkinSense sensors in each trial and exported data from the proprietary software (WalkinSense version 0.96, Tomorrow Options Microelectronics, S.A.). The plantar pressure distribution was conducted under two conditions: only shoes and DAFO with shoes. The activation percentages for sensor number 1 under the 1st metatarsal and sensor number 4 under the lateral edge of the heel were significantly different under the DAFO condition. The 1-point sensor activation percentage significantly decreased, while the 4-point sensor activation percentage increased during DAFO walking. According to our study findings, there was an increase in pressure distribution in the lateral part of the foot during the stance phase in DAFO. DAFO improved the gait cycle and influenced the plantar foot pressure in children with mild cerebral palsy.
Volume Number	10
PubMed Central reference number	PMC10137149
Issue Number	4
PubMed reference number	37189971
Journal	Children (Basel)
e-ISSN	22279067
DOI	10.3390/children10040722
Language	English
Publisher	MDPI
Publisher Date	2023-04-13
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). © 2023 by the authors.
Subject Keyword	cerebral palsy (CP) DAFO (dynamic ankle-foot orthosis) plantar pressure distribution
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health