In considering the wealth of investigation that has been done to evaluate the efficacy of AFOs, no population has received more scrutiny than the post-stroke hemiplegia patient population. Unfortunately, the presentations of the study subjects and the orthoses used in these investigations have historically been poorly described, making the value of such investigations to clinical orthotists and others in rehabilitation limited. Knowing the outcomes of poorly defined or controlled interventions on somewhat vaguely described patient populations does little to inform the specific design characteristics that will best benefit an individual with a defined physical presentation. Fortunately, several recent studies have better defined both the characteristics of the AFO interventions and the physical presentations of the study subjects, making their findings more relevant to clinical practitioners. This article focuses on some of these new studies.
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