• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.161-175
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of HPAFO(Hinged Plastic Ankle Foot orthosis) and SPAFO(Solid Plastic Ankle Foot Orthosis) on standing balance and step moving in hemiplegia patients. Twenty hemiplegic patients were either inpatient or outpatient at the Rehabilitation medicine, MokPo J General Hospital and JeonJu J Medical Center from July 15, 2002 to September 15, 2002. Patients were able to ambulate independently for at least 10 meters and to stand independently for at least 10 minutes with balance measurement tool. The static balance and dynamic activity measurement was determined by SAKAI active balancer(Japan) with wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO. The static balance and dynamic activity analysis was analyzed by independent t-test. The results were as follows: 1. There were no significant difference in body weight bearing percent between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.05). 2. There were significant difference in whole path length between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p<0.05). 3. There were significant difference in Effective Value Area between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). 4. There were significant difference in repeated functional time between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). 5. There were significant difference in cadence between wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO(p>0.001). The result of this study showed that wearing HPAFO and wearing SPAFO gave fair amount of improvement to static standing balance and dynamic movement ability of hemiplegic patients. The comparison result showed significant differences in between HPAFO and SPAHFO. The result of this study had a general limitation due to the restricted number of cases. The future study needs more detailed research and comparison with various variance between these two orthoses.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.96-107
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• 2005

Objective: The purpose of this study were to investigate the standing balance, dynamic activity in hemiplegic patients according to the types of ankle-foot orthosis(AFO) and to determine the most effective type of AFO for gait training. Method: A prospective study was performed for 16 patients with hemiplegia who was able to walk independently. Static balance and dynamic activity were compared in two condition : 1) barefoot and SPAFO, 2) barefoot and HPAFO. Static balance and dynamic activity characteristics were evaluated by Active Balance while they were standing with in two condition AFO and barefoot. Results: There were significant difference in standing balance between barefoot and wearing SPAFO and HPAFO(p<0.05). There were significant difference in dynamic activity balance between barefoot and wearing SPAFO and HPAFO(p<0.05). There were significant difference in gait speed between barefoot and wearing SPAFO and HPAFO(p<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that wearing SPAFO and HPAFO gave fair amount of improvement to balance and gait ability of hemiplegic patients.