Drop foot support products are made to provide dynamic and static support for people with the incapacity to lift their foot up because of paralysis of the anterior leg muscle group. The causes can range from trauma and diseases to post-surgical complications.
The above causes result in a weakness or paralysis of the muscles involved in lifting the front part of the foot. This condition can make a person drag the toe of their shoe on the ground and considerably impair walking.
When someone is suffering from this condition, chances are that they need foot drop brace and your physical therapist is a great resource for helping you to get the proper device. A simple foot injury can turn into a risky situation if you ignore it. If this happens, you will need a brace to help sustain the anterior muscle used in lifting the foot.
Drop foot is defined as the loss of ability to raise the foot at the ankle and naturally that leads to difficulty in walking. If you are suffering from a foot or lower leg injury, you are at a much higher risk to develop the drop foot syndrome. Should this circumstance happen to you, there are foot drop braces available to support the anterior muscle which is used for lifting your foot. People with this kind of injury use the hip muscles to lift the foot above the ground and this becomes tiring.
The aim of a brace is to provide you with a more normal walk. This is also known as ankle-foot orthotics or AFO. To understand how these braces work, you must first understand the there are two standard motions that occur in the ankle joint, plantar flexion – motioning the toes to point downward and dorsiflexion – motioning the toes to point upward.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic disease that affects about 2.1 million Americans, mostly women. It has been shown to attack multiple joints throughout the body. It is estimated that 1.5 million women and 600,000 men are victims of this debilitating disease. Of these affected, approximately 90% of the people with RA eventually develop foot or ankle problems and even deformity. In fact, many of the early symptoms of RA often include foot problems. Problems with feet are more common than problems with the hand and only second to the knee. Rheumatoid arthritis symptoms can lead to serious disability, such as foot drop, when the person has to wear foot drop braces to be able to walk.
The exact cause of RA is still unknown, even with years of study. Some possible causes include genetics from parents, chemical or environmental “triggers”. These all lead to a malfunction of the immune system. In RA, the immune system turns against itself and damages the joints causing cartilage inflammation.