Foot of the Week – Episode 1 – Custom AFO solutions

Weekly video blog featuring Insightful Product’s AFO strategies for Foot and Ankle Problems and ankle bracing.

Video Transcript: 

Hi, Ian Engelman here from Insightful Products. Welcome to our video blog. We’re going to be talking about the foot of the week, showing you parts of the process of making a custom articulating ankle AFO. And include with that some of the techniques that we use to make sure our customers get the best outcomes that they can get.

Alright, so on this one, what we’re trying to do is distribute the pressure just above and behind the base of the first ray. Right here, this first ray is really collapsed, and you can see there’s a big bony prominence right there. We won’t need to make any relief for the navicular or the talar head. And all I’m doing now is just softening it up so the patient can tolerate the pressure. At the same time, they’ll get some correction they need to prevent further deterioration of the foot.

The medial column doesn’t need much relief. I created a little bit of a relief there, but we won’t need any windows right there for this particular case.

This lateral malleolus is very prominent. The trick here is to get the counteracting pressure right here. Because as this person steps down, what’s going to happen is they’re going to tend to slide off the brace. So, the elements that prevent that are right in through here and the shoe itself. The shoe will act as a clamping mechanism.