The effect of the heel- to- toe rocker shoe on limitation of the foot and ankle joints motions

Rocker sole are the most commonly prescribed external therapeutic shoe modification. rocker profiles have also proven useful in the treatment of conditions requiring limitation of the ankle and midfoot motions. The aim of this study was to assessed the effects of the heel- to-toe rocker shoes on the motion of the forefoot and hindfoot.

In this quasi-exprimental study, three-dimentional gait analysis was performed on 15 healthy volunteers girls with normal BMI and normal gait pattern, between 18-24 years old. A Vicon 470 system(Oxford Metrix, U.K.) consisting of 6 ultra-red cameras operating at 60Hz and two kistler forceplate(A9286) was used.The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to statistical analysis. the motion of the forefoot and hindfoot compared between traditional shoes and heel- to-toe rocker shoes.

The statistical analysis using Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that the hindfoot joint excursion while wearing rocker shoes in sagittal plane was significantly less than that while wearing traditional shoes(p=0.005) but in frontal plane increased(p=0.028) and no obvious rocker shoe effect was found in the transverse plane(p=0.203). The average of forefoot joint excursion in the sagittal plane while wearing modified shoes shoes was significantly less than that while wearing traditional shoes(p=0.047) but in frontal plane with modified shoes forefoot joint excursion increased(p=0.013). and in transverse plane this rocker shoe significantly restricted hindfoot motion (p=0.015).

Thisstudy showed that the heel- to-toe rocker shoe significantly restricts foot joints motions in sagittal plane but joints motions in frontal plain increase with this modification.