The Development of Ankle Control Elastic Band for Improvement in Walking of Hemiplegic Patients

Lee, Kyoung Moo; Byun, Jae Hyun

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The aims of this study were to verify that the newly developed ankle control elastic band (ACE band) can improve the gait pattern of hemiplegic patients by assessment of objective and subjective data. METHOD: ACE band consisted of medial ring, lateral ring, and elastic band was devised and 11 ambulatory stroke patients were evaluated with gait measurements, functional ambulation categories (FAC), functional reach test (FRT), and questionnaires for the effect of ACE band. Gait measurements were of 10 m walking time, cadence, stride length, stride period, stance phase, single support time, and single support time asymmetry ratio. RESULTS: Gait measurements with the ACE band showed significant improvement (p<0.05 or p<0.01). FAC and FRT with the ACE band were significantly increased (p<0.01), and the questionnaires suggested that wearing the ACE band helped improve toe dragging, swinging leg forward, taking weight through foot, confidence of gait, safety of gait, gait distance and gait velocity. CONCLUSION: ACE band was invented for improvement of hemiplegic gait, and its evaluation of gait measurements, FAC, FRT, and questionnaire showed that the ACE band was effective for hemiplegic gait after stroke.