Foot of the Week – Episode 12 – Drop Foot Treatment

In this week’s episode, we demonstrate how the Step-Smart brace (treatment) for drop foot can be adjusted to track better on the leg. The existing orthotic should be removed from the shoe before inserting the brace. The Step-Smart AFO has a good arch support and foot orthotic built into the braces footplate. This needs to be aligned properly so that the calf section tracks on the leg properly.

Video Transcript:

Hi, Ian here. Welcome to Foot of the Week. We’re gonna talk about one of the features of the Jacob joint that a lot of people aren’t aware of. Each Jacob joint comes with a set of bumpers but also a longer tensor. With every Step Smart brace, we install two tensors that are shorter, and we give you a longer one. This longer tensor is not a replacement tensor, it’s a tensor that allows you to make an angular adjustment in the coronal plane. That’s very unusual, the Jacob joint is the only brace that allows you to make that kind of change. It comes with a bag that has an assortment of bumpers. If your patient wears orthotics, take them out before putting in the brace. This is supposed to be a right foot so if there’s an arch support underneath and it hasn’t been removed it may kick the brace over and it may dislocate laterally. If there’s a lot of toe-out what will happen is the calf section will dislocate medially. All this doesn’t happen very often but if it does we have the solution. Putting a little lock tight on the threads you don’t need much half a drop will do. Here we put the longer tensor on the medial side. But putting the longer tensor on the medial side it kicks over the calf section towards the lateral side. With a lot of toe-out you may end up with this situation here. And that is that the calf section dislocates medially so again what you do is take that longer tensor and install it in the medial side to kick it right over into place. And if there’s a lot of toe-in the calf section may tend to dislocate laterally. And the way you would solve that is putting the longer tensor on the lateral side and that will kick the calf section right over. So, watch the person as they walk and see how that calf section tracks and as long as it doesn’t dislocate then you’re all set. That’s it for Foot of the Week. We’ll see you next week.