Lower Extremity Review
Patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease showing the greatest increase in speed appear to respond to and utilize the energy storing and releasing properties of a carbon fiber composite ankle foot orthosis differently from those who had smaller increases in walking speed.
By Janet S. Dufek, PhD; Edward S. Neumann, PhD, PE, CP; M. Cameron Hawkins, PhD; and Brendan J. O’Toole, PhD
Despite the documented benefits of supervised exercise in patients with claudication, its effect on actual clinical practice has been disappointing due to a lack of reimbursement. But practitioners and researchers have been investigating other options, with encouraging preliminary results.
By Cary Groner
Transcranial magnetic stimulation research suggests cortical excitability may be able to help differentiate healthy, previously injured, and functionally unstable ankle joints, and underscores the need to clinically target both mechanical and proprioceptive deficits in patients with FAI.
By Alan R. Needle, PhD
Studies show that lower extremity amputation rates in patients with diabetes vary widely, sometimes even within individual healthcare systems. What’s more difficult to determine is why these variations exist and what can be done to improve access to care for all patients.
By Larry Hand
The etiology of Achilles tendon rupture is multifactorial, but the injury occurs most frequently in the athletic population. Clinicians still miss 24% of ruptures acutely, particularly in older patients, those in whom sports was not the causative mechanism, and those with high BMIs.
By Steven M. Raikin, MD
Many knee injury prevention programs do not focus on ankle dorsiflexion range of motion and hip adductor activation, but research suggests both distal and proximal variables contribute to alterations in frontal plane knee biomechanics and could affect injury risk.
By Darin A. Padua, PhD, ATC, and Micheal A. Clark, DPT, MS, PES, CES
Advocates of surgical nerve decompression in a subset of patients with diabetic neuropathy have published some impressive outcomes, but critics of the procedure point to the conspicuous absence of randomized trials. The issue has become one of the most contentious in diabetes care.
By Cary Groner
Physical impairments associated with femoroacetabular impingement include limited range of motion, muscle weakness, and altered biomechanics. Attention to these areas during rehabilitation can improve surgical outcomes and may even reduce the risk of osteoarthritis.
By Jerrad R. Guenther, BSc, Michael K. Gilbart MD, FRCS(C), MEd, and Michael A. Hunt PT, PhD
Research suggests that obesity influences the development of Achilles tendinopathy to a greater degree than other types of foot and ankle pain. This phenomenon will become increasingly important to lower extremity practitioners as global obesity rates continue to rise.
By Ryan T. Scott, DPM, AACFAS, and Christopher F. Hyer, DPM, MS, FACFAS
Hip strengthening can improve short-term outcomes related to patellofemoral pain syndrome, but further research is needed to determine the underlying mechanism and whether the same approach will also prove effective in managing patellofemoral osteoarthritis.
By Michael B. Pohl, PhD
The third International Patellofemoral Pain Research Retreat picked up where previous retreats had left off in examining proximal and distal factors related to PFP and subgroups of patients who might respond to targeted interventions. But this retreat broke some new ground as well.
By Jordana Bieze Foster
Plantar plate pathology in conjunction with metatarsalgia occurs more often than is commonly appreciated, but can be addressed using a combined procedure that involves a dorsal approach to anatomic plantar plate repair and metatarsal realignment.
By Lowell Weil Jr, DPM, FACFAS, and Erin E. Klein, DPM, MS
Research continues to suggest that bracing has the ability to improve pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis in a controlled setting, but researchers are now working to identify factors that affect bracing outcomes in the real world. Patient expectations are at the top of that list.
By Larry Hand
The literature suggests that women are less likely than men to experience an Achilles tendon rupture. This may be because women are less capable of generating the large eccentric contractions necessary for rupturing the tendon. Estrogen may also play a protective role.
By Joseph L. Laratta, MD, and J. Turner Vosseller, MD
Myofascial or joint-focused stretches can increase passive hip range of motion in young adult men with limited hip flexibility, but this will not necessarily result in more hip motion actually being utilized during functional activity unless old movement patterns can be unlearned.
By Janice Moreside, PhD
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