Effects of specialist care lower limb orthoses on personal goal attainment and walking ability in adults with neuromuscular disorders.

Background: Lower limb orthoses intend to improve walking in adults with neuromuscular disorders (NMD). Yet, reported group effects of lower limb orthoses on treatment outcomes have generally been small and heterogeneous. We propose that guideline-based orthotic care within a multidisciplinary expert setting may improve treatment outcomes.
Aim: To examine the effectiveness of specialist care orthoses compared to usual care orthoses on personal goal attainment and walking ability.
Design: Cohort study.
Population: Adults with NMD who experienced walking problems due to calf and/or quadriceps muscle weakness and were provided with a specialist care lower limb orthosis between October 2011 and January 2021.
Methods: Three months after provision, the specialist care orthosis was compared to the usual care orthosis worn at baseline in terms of personal goal attainment (Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS)), comfortable walking speed (m/s), net energy cost (J/kg/m) (both assessed during a 6-minute walk test), perceived walking ability and satisfaction.
Results: Sixty-four adults with NMD were eligible for analysis. The specialist care orthoses comprised 19 dorsiflexion-restricting ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs), 22 stance-control knee-ankle-foot orthoses (KAFOs) and 23 locked KAFOs. Overall, 61% of subjects showed a clinically relevant improvement in GAS score. Perceived safety, stability, intensity, fear of falling and satisfaction while walking all improved (p≤0.002), and subjects were satisfied with their specialist care orthosis and the services provided. Although no effects on walking speed or net energy cost were found in combined orthosis groups, specialist care AFOs significantly reduced net energy cost (by 9.5%) compared to usual care orthoses (from mean (SD) 3.81 (0.97) to 3.45 (0.80) J/kg/m, p = 0.004).
Conclusion: Guideline-based orthotic care within a multidisciplinary expertise setting could improve treatment outcomes in adults with NMD compared to usual orthotic care by improvements in goal attainment and walking ability. A randomized controlled trial is now warranted to confirm these results.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 van Duijnhoven et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)