Tutor System Assists Drop Foot Patients

As reported in the Sacramento Bee on December 12, 2011
There is new hope for children with a form of lower leg paralysis known as “foot drop” due to cerebral palsy (CP). Foot drop is a condition of weakness or motor control that interferes with a person’s ability to flex the ankle, lift the foot, and walk with a normal heel-toe pattern. In many cases, the toes touch the ground before the heel, which can affect walking stability on that leg. Also, when children swing the leg forward to take a step, the toes can catch or drag on the ground, causing them to stumble and trip. Typically, children are prescribed a rigid plastic L-shaped brace called an ankle-foot-orthosis (AFO) that secures the ankle and foot in one stable position. While the AFO braces the foot, it provides only passive control, not movement; it is bulky and often requires a larger different size shoe to be worn to accommodate the foot with the brace. Other disadvantages of AFOs are that they may be hot or uncomfortable to wear, may limit some function such as squatting or running, and are not cosmetically appealing to some children.
The 3DT Tutor will provide intensive isolated ankle exercise practice in patients that can not properly flex and extend their ankle during walking. Working on isolated extension and flexion exercises of the ankle will improve the patients motor and sensory movement ability so that footdrop can be improved when the patient undertakes normal walking. The 3DT Tutor can be combined with the LegTutor, used for knee and hip exercise practice. This will allow the patient to undertake hip, knee and ankle intensive exercise practice which will result in the patient achieving a more efficient walking pattern.
The LegTutor and 3DTutor are used after Stroke and traumatic brain and spinal cord injury as well as with Parkinsons and MS patients. The LegTutor and 3DTutor is also used following orthopedic injury and disease.
The Tutor system consists of the HandTutor, ArmTutor, LegTutor and 3DTutor. For more information go to www.HandTutor.com