Thanks to everyone who responded. For the benefit of the list, if one does not respond with a name and/or credentials, I don’t post the response. Anonymous repliers provide questionable ethical, professional and experienced information. It is difficult to judge the validity of an anonymous response.
ORIGINAL POSTED QUESTION:
Looking for comments and experiences on adjustable heel feet. I have never used one. I am aware of the Masterstep (Ossur). Endolite has one, I think, and New Generation? Really don’t know much about any of them. I am looking for something with a good track record that is fairly low maintenance. Patient lives in rural area about 45 minutes from office and has 3 young children. I am interested in both good and bad experiences. Thanks in advance.
RESPONSES:
Joan, I have used the several of the endolite adjustable
heel height and have had pretty good results. They do
adjust easily and they are fairly reliable. You need to
educate the patinet on how to adjust them and to keep
them tight.
SAFE also has one. We here at Duke like the new one by Century XXII (now
Ossur) best. It is patient proof.
Joan, how much variance are you wanting. We are just finishing up a study here at SIU where we looked at, among other things, the compliance of the Talux when you change heel heights without altering the alignment. Our Resident will be presenting the data at the AAOP meeting next month.
I too, have seen the new L-code 5990 and it’s reimbursement . I called Endolite a few days ago and they DO NOT recomend using L5990 for their Multi-flex ankle/feet. I have used a couple of theOssur Total Concept feet and they are ‘OK’ as far as patient “usable” but they are MUCHO expensive as per function.I have seldom mentioned the heel height factor to patients on Endolites as chance of miss-alignment is too great for most and the result is ruining both foot and ankle.For a SACH foot, by far the least expensive and patient compliant is the DAW RAJ-110, (yeah I know, DAW) It works with just about any SACH foot that uses a standard SACH foot adapter and comes in 8 and 10 mm. I, personally never use an 8 bolt except on the little ones but even an inept dad or mom could change the height for that special pair of shoes. That’s just my thoughts on the subject, I think the traffic has died down this Friday night by now and I can turn off that noisy vaccume that’s been running and go home.Best regards,P.S. I enjoy your imput/comments on ‘da list’ Masterstep is okay but more to deal with. I just do not like handing patients hex wrenches. So far my experiences with Ossur’ century 33 foot have been positive. It is very easy to change height.
