National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers presented a study at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy Developmental Medicine (AACPDM) on October 15, that shows the WalkAide System, Innovative Neurotronics, Austin, Texas, improves mobility in children with foot drop due to cerebral palsy (CP). This is the first clinical trial on the use of a functional electrical stimulation (FES) device for foot drop in children with CP.
Participants in this study tolerated the WalkAide well, walked faster compared to walking barefoot, and demonstrated improved dorsiflexion as compared to wearing shoes and walking barefoot by the seven-month assessment period. The study concludes that patients may continue to improve with continued FES use, which is not an anticipated outcome for traditional orthoses, and state that understanding the underlying mechanism for this improvement over time requires further investigation.
