Walking in a controlled ankle motion (CAM) boot: in-boot measurement of joint kinematics and kinetics

Stolycia, ML, Lunn, DE, Wilkins, RA, Barnett, CT ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6898-9095 and Walker, J, 2024. Walking in a controlled ankle motion (CAM) boot: in-boot measurement of joint kinematics and kinetics. Journal of Biomechanics, 176: 112327. ISSN 0021-9290

Preview

Text 2237555_Barnett.pdf - Published version Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract

Research investigating ankle function during walking in a controlled ankle motion (CAM) boot has either placed markers on the outside of the boot or made major alterations to the structure of the CAM boot to uncover key landmarks. The aim of this study was to quantify joint kinematics and kinetics using “in-boot” skin markers whilst making only minimal structural alterations. Seventeen healthy participants walked at their preferred walking speed in two conditions: (1) in standard athletic trainers (ASICS patriot 8, ASICS Oceania Pty Ltd, USA), and (2) using a hard-cased CAM boot (Rebound® Air Walker, Össur, Iceland) fitted on the right foot. Kinematic measurements revealed that CAM boots restrict sagittal plane ankle range of motion to less than 5°, and to ∼3° in the frontal plane, which is a reduction of 85% and 73% compared to standard footwear, respectively (p < 0.001). This ankle restriction resulted in a reduction of ankle joint total limb work contribution from 38 ± 5% in normal footwear to 13 ± 4% in the CAM boot (p < 0.001). This study suggests that CAM boots do restrict the ankle joint’s ability to effectively perform work during walking, which leads to compensatory mechanisms at the ipsilateral and contralateral hip and knee joints. Our findings align with previous research that employed “on-boot” kinematic measurements, so we conclude that in-boot approaches do not offer any benefit to the researcher and instead, on-boot measurements are suitable.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Journal of Biomechanics
Creators:	Stolycia, M.L., Lunn, D.E., Wilkins, R.A., Barnett, C.T. and Walker, J.
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date:	November 2024
Volume:	176
ISSN:	0021-9290
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2024.112327 DOI 2237555 Other
Rights:	© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	04 Oct 2024 10:14
Last Modified:	04 Oct 2024 10:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52356

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads