Hi ALL,
Thank you very much for all for their valuable responses.I always find this
platform very helpful. All email responses are as below:
I have been an educator for Allard and I love their product. With that
being said, I could never stop the breakage of Kiddie Gaits in my Spina
Bifida population. I have now become certified in Phat braces and have
really enjoyed them. The outcomes are great, with a very diminished risk of
breakage. You do want to be firm and firm on your rigidity in treating
Spina Bifida. You also may need to post the heel to bring some ML
stability. Do the online certification course. It is worth it.
I (cpo)as well as my wife(co, cped) used them many times when we worked at
RIC in Chicago years ago. They are great orthosis. We used then on patients
that either broke off-the-shelf composite afo’s or patient s that destroyed
plastic custom afo’s within 9-12 months. We never had one break on the
patients we chose to use them on. We even used one for a patient that had a
partial foot amputation that always felt drop off with the traditional
plastic Afo with toe filler. He felt the dynamic response and long lever
arm which took pressure off distal cut ends of his foot. As far as placing
them on your patient I am unsure only due to cost, as they are expensive.
However, if patient is hard in current items and they seem to be keeping
your patient from going further with their abilities – it’s always worth
the try to give more ability. Good luck and I hope that helps.
I have predominantly worked with the Phatbraces in the pediatric CP
population, but I have had great success. .
In my practice we used the PHAT brace a lot when it first hit the
market.The patients we were treating had CP as DX. The physician prescribed
the PHAT AFO for his patients that presented with crouch gait, it was great
in promoting knee extension however we had issues with providing triplanar
control of the ankle in the device. Patients experienced breakdown over the
navicular .
If your patient requires control of pronation, I would not recommend using
the PHAT brace.
—
Phat AFO’s I have found difficult to adjust for pressure based on material
and location of carbon.
Appreciate all your responses..Many Thanks,
Shraddha Rasal
Clinical Orthotist/Prosthetist
