Enhancement of walking ability using a custom-made hinged knee brace in patients who experienced ambient stroke and are in the acute phase.
Yoshinori Naito, Masataka Kamiya, Akira Kanai and 1 others
PMID 31871376WHAT IT FOUND
In people walking soon after stroke, a hinged knee brace with adjustable rubber tubes gave faster walking than no brace or a general hinged knee brace when set to each person's best tube combination.
The effect was measured only during short parallel-bar walking.
Key findings
01All patients walked fastest while wearing the support brace, but the best rubber-tube setting differed by patient.
02With each patient's optimal support brace setting, average walking speed was 0.60 ± 0.11 m/s, compared with 0.45 ± 0.16 m/s without a brace and 0.52 ± 0.14 m/s with the general brace.
03The optimal support brace setting also gave greater average knee extension strength than no brace, 1.01 ± 0.24 Nm/kg versus 0.82 ± 0.28 Nm/kg, but not greater than the general brace, 0.93 ± 0.28 Nm/kg.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 13 patients were studied, all in the acute phase and able to walk at least 50 m, so results may not apply to people who are more severely affected. Walking was measured only between parallel bars, and the study measured immediate effects only. The support brace was set to the combination that gave each person the fastest walk, so the reported advantage may reflect the best immediate setting rather than a fixed brace setting. The number of patients in each optimal tube combination was too small to judge which combination works best. No participants needed an ankle-foot orthosis, so the brace was not tested with an AFO.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that the brace improves long-term walking or everyday walking. The study measured immediate walking speed only during short parallel-bar walking, and the best tube setting had to be chosen for each person.