Our Solution to Foot Drop
Foot drop causes difficulties in patients’ daily life and affects their physical and psychological health. Functional electrical stimulation helps patients improve gaits, regain mobility, and increase confidence in life.
Foot drop or dropped foot is a symptom that you can not lift the front part of the foot due to the damage and weakness of dorsiflexion of the foot, commonly caused by nerve injury in the spinal cord or brain.
When you can not lift the front part of the foot, you might have a tendency of walking with an exaggerated gait (lift the knee higher than normal and swing the leg wider) to prevent the toes from catching on the ground and causing tripping and falling, which also means you cannot walk as fast as the others, you can not walk long distances, and it takes you a greater effort to walk.
The reduced mobility will limit their social life and the strange gait while walking also puts a lot of psychological pressure on the patients.
Can foot drop be treated?
As foot drop is not a disease. It is a symptom mostly caused by injury of the nerve and neurological diseases. Therefore, only when the cause is successfully treated is it possible to treat foot drop. If the cause can not be treated, the foot drop might be permanent, but you can improve it and prevent it from getting worse.
What’s Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
FES is an approved rehabilitation intervention to help improve foot drop and increase muscle strength. It works by delivering small electrical impulses to stimulate the common peroneal nerve to cause muscle contractions and help lift the front of the foot. The device usually comes with a smart sensor to detect the right moment you need to lift the foot and then provide precise contractions.
FES device is a very functional assistive device for foot drop patients to walk more safely, quickly, and further, with less effort.
What Benefits Can I Get from Using An FES Device?
Improve Gait & Mobility Significantly
There have been trials showing that foot drop patients using an FES device to walk got a 23% improvement of walking speed, much higher than an only 3% improvement by using other therapies like AFO.
Nobody Notices You Are Wearing Walking Assistive Device
FES is increasingly popular among foot drop patients because of its characteristics of being wearable, lightweight, easy to use, and visible effects. The device is small, much less bulky than a brace. It is almost invisible while wearing it with your trousers leg down, increasing your confidence.
Demonstrate Greater Therapeutic Effects
FES can help correct the cause of the condition to the point where patients no longer require any treatment at all. Furthermore, the gait correction that FES provides can be tuned to produce more natural movement and can result in the recovery of additional functions such as raising the toe.
What’s more, for foot drop patients, their low limb muscles tend to become weak resulting from lack of exercise. In this case, FES can help exercise the muscles instead and improve their strength and flexibility.
FES can also help with reducing spasticity and reduce swelling.
FES can really open up a new world for whoever is frustrated at their foot drop. With it, they can walk without someone’s help, and more confidently. ”
Can I Benefit from FES Device?
If you have foot drop caused by below neurological conditions, the device can help.
- Stroke
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Spinal cord injury
- Cerebral Palsy
- Parkinson’s disease
For the first-time user, it takes a little bit of time to get used to it. And an FES device usually comes with a wide range of parameters that enables users to personalize to their specific needs. It will take time to get the most comfortable gait. Once you get used to walking with the device, you will find it truly helpful.
Contact us
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