ORTHOSES CONTROL OF FRONTAL AND SAGITTAL PLANE MOTION IN THE INJURED AND UNINJURED LEGS OF SUBJECTS WITH CHRONIC ACHILLES TENDON INJURY DURING RUNNING

Abstract

This study is part of a larger study examining the effectiveness of orthoses in relieving symptoms of injury. Nine subjects with unilateral chronic Achilles tendon injury ran on a treadmill under three conditions: barefoot, with orthoses and without orthoses. Threedimensional rearfoot and lower leg kinematic data was obtained using eight ProReflex Qualisys MCU240 cameras operating at 200 Hz. An SPSS repeated measures ANOVA was used to examine differences between injured and uninjured legs. Results indicated considerable between SUbject variation even in this carefUlly controlled SUbject group. Orthoses restored the injured leg to a more neutral frontal plane position at heel strike and decreased sagittal plane maximum and ROM angles by more than 2° compared to the no orthoses condition. There was a significant leg'condition interaction effect for Achilles tendon angle at heel strike (p =0.003) illustrating different effects of conditions for both legs.