Immediate effects of using ankle-foot orthoses in the kinematics of gait and in the balance reactions in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

The Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is a peripheral hereditary neuropathy with progressive distal muscle atrophy and weakness, mainly in lower limbs, that evolves limiting the gait and balance. The objective of the study was to analyse the immediate effects of using Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO) in the gait's kinematics and balance in patients with CMT. Nine individuals were evaluated by Tinetti scales and Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) and gait's kinematics parameters through the motion capturing system. These evaluations were done before and during the use of AFO. Two-Way repeated analysis of variance was done to try the main or interaction effects related to "orthoses" and "repetition". A significant interaction effect was observed between the gait cycle and use the AFO to the average velocity (Wilks' Lambda=0.156, p=0.030, η2=0.844) like significant main effects in the ankle joint to the gait cycle (Wilks' Lambda=0.091, p=0.008, η2=0.909) and the use of AFO (Wilks' Lambda=0.444, p=0.013, η2=0.556). It was observed a significant change in the DGI scale during the use of AFO (p<0.05). The use of AFO promoted immediate effects on gait kinematics and in balance reactions. The results suggest that the use of AFO is an efficient strategy to stabilize the ankle joint, besides avoiding foot drop in patients with CMT.