1.Body weight support boots can promote gait rehabilitation after ankle fracture surgery
Xin ZHANG ; Ziang NIE ; Yingying LIAO ; Hui LIU ; Yalin HE ; Xiechen FENG ; Jiali SHI
Chinese Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2024;46(9):812-816
Objective:To explore the effectiveness of body weight support in gait training after surgery for an ankle fracture.Methods:Thirty-eight ankle fracture patients who received surgery were divided at random into an observation group and a control group, each of 19. In addition to 3 sessions of routine gait rehabilitation training a week for 6 weeks, only those in the observation group received body weight support training with body weight support boots. Gait data were collected using the GaitWatch three-dimensional gait action capture and training system before the training and after 2, 4 and 6 weeks of the training.Results:At each assessment the gait frequency, gait cycle, stride length, stride rate, bilateral step length, step length deviation, bilateral support phase and bilateral swing phase of both groups had improved significantly. After 6 weeks the average stride frequency, gait cycle, stride length on both sides and speed of the observation group had improved significantly more than among the control group. Step length deviation was not significantly different, however. At each evaluation the proportions of affected and healthy side support had decreased significantly in both groups, but affected and healthy side swing had increased and the proportion of bilateral support had decreased significantly.Conclusion:Body weight support training with body weight support boots can significantly improve gait after ankle fracture surgery. Its effect is superior to that of conventional gait training.