Dropfoot (also known as drop foot, foot drop and footdrop) is a condition characterized by weakness or paralysis of the muscles involved in lifting the front part of the foot. It causes a person to either drag the foot and toes or engage in a high-stepping walk called steppage gait. A significant number of individuals – men and women, young and old – experience difficulty with the most simple day-to-day activities because of mobility dysfunctions such as peroneal nerve palsy that lead to dropfoot. WalkAide was designed to restore mobility to those individuals seeking a return to independence.
http://www.walkaide.com/EN-US/Pages/default.aspx
WalkAideAnother option for Foot Drop, the WalkAide is a new battery-operated, single-channel electrical stimulator that is used for functional electrical stimulation (FES). It is called a “Neural Prosthesis” and it utilizes a tilt sensor and an accelerometer to determine the position of the lower leg during gait. The device then uses FES to stimulate the dorsiflexor muscles to help control the foot position while walking in an effort to restore normalized leg motion.
The WalkAide is programmed by the Orthotist using a sophisticated computer software program that collects, processes, and optimizes gait data for the unique needs of each patient. The selection criteria for the WalkAide are very specific and not all patients with Foot Drop are appropriate candidates.
http://www.cascadeorthotics.com/html/walkaide.html
Potential candidates include patients who have had:
•Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA)
•Multiple Sclerosis
•Traumatic brain injury
•Incomplete spinal cord injury
•Cerebral Palsy
•Other upper motor neuron or central nervous system involvements
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