Ground reaction and solid ankle-foot orthoses are equivalent for the correction of crouch gait in children with cerebral palsy.

AIM: To investigate any performance differences between the solid ankle-foot orthosis (SAFO) and ground reaction ankle-foot orthosis (GRAFO) designs for correcting crouch gait in children diagnosed with cerebral palsy (CP).

METHOD: We retrospectively analyzed 147 individuals seen at our center who: (1) were diagnosed with diplegic CP, (2) walked with crouch gait, (3) had bilateral SAFO or GRAFO prescription, and (4) had three-dimensional gait analysis collected for both barefoot and orthosis walking conditions.

RESULTS: Overall, no performance gap was identified between the SAFO and GRAFO groups (p=0.828). A series of bootstrapped stepwise regression analyses indicated that ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) design was not predictive of crouch gait improvements. Improvements in crouch gait were instead shown to be predicted by AFO neutral angle and four patient factors: amount of dorsiflexion in stance, level of knee flexion contracture, age, and severity of crouch.

INTERPRETATION: Our results show that the SAFO and GRAFO designs are equally effective at correcting crouch gait for individuals diagnosed with CP.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: No performance difference was detected between solid ankle-foot orthoses and ground reaction ankle-foot orthoses designs for crouch gait correction. Crouch gait improvement from ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) is influenced by AFO neutral angle. Other factors of influence include: dorsiflexion in stance, level of knee flexion contracture, age, and severity of crouch.