In the past people were excluded from military service and many children suffered under the stigma of having flat feet. Flat feet have been a very popular area of research for years, yet many unresolved issues still exist. There appears to be no universally accepted definition of normal arch height within the general population, which leads to difficulty in identifying and classifying flat feet. A reduced arch appears to have an effect on human movement but the extent of this in dynamic movement remains undefined. The primary aim of this project was to investigate if there were differences in performance of basic gross motor skills between normal and low arched feet in 9 ??? 12 year old children. The principal measurement technique proposed was more accurate than previous studies and permitted an in-depth analysis of the foot in dynamic situations. This three-dimensional foot analysis facilitated a greater understanding of the biomechanics of the foot. The research was undertaken in three phases. The initial phase classified approximately one hundred children???s feet for inclusion in the subsequent phases. Static footprints and dynamic arch height measurement were recorded. The second phase comprised of three-dimensional foot analysis, and basic functional tasks including, jumping, balancing, and hopping undertaken with thirty children; fifteen low and fifteen normal arched. An additional twenty-four children participated in the third and final phase, which included a lower limb gait analysis with strength and proprioception tests in addition to the tests in phase two. Kinematically the low arched foot had a significantly lower medial arch angle and a reduced forefoot pronation angle throughout the gait cycle. This research also found that they had a more externally rotated hip particularly during the stance phase of gait. Functionally there were remarkably few differences between the two groups. The low arched group had significantly reduced performance in lateral hopping. However they showed stronger plantar flexion strength, and performed better in the vertical jumping task. It can be concluded from this research that there is no major disadvantage to performance of gross motor skills for the children in this project with low arched asymptomatic feet.

In the past people were excluded from military service and many children suffered under the stigma of having flat feet. Flat feet have been a very popular area of research for years, yet many unresolved issues still exist. There appears to be no universally accepted definition of normal arch height within the general population, which leads to difficulty in identifying and classifying flat feet. A reduced arch appears to have an effect on human movement but the extent of this in dynamic movement remains undefined. The primary aim of this project was to investigate if there were differences in performance of basic gross motor skills between normal and low arched feet in 9 ??? 12 year old children. The principal measurement technique proposed was more accurate than previous studies and permitted an in-depth analysis of the foot in dynamic situations. This three-dimensional foot analysis facilitated a greater understanding of the biomechanics of the foot. The research was undertaken in three phases. The initial phase classified approximately one hundred children???s feet for inclusion in the subsequent phases. Static footprints and dynamic arch height measurement were recorded. The second phase comprised of three-dimensional foot analysis, and basic functional tasks including, jumping, balancing, and hopping undertaken with thirty children; fifteen low and fifteen normal arched. An additional twenty-four children participated in the third and final phase, which included a lower limb gait analysis with strength and proprioception tests in addition to the tests in phase two. Kinematically the low arched foot had a significantly lower medial arch angle and a reduced forefoot pronation angle throughout the gait cycle. This research also found that they had a more externally rotated hip particularly during the stance phase of gait. Functionally there were remarkably few differences between the two groups. The low arched group had significantly reduced performance in lateral hopping. However they showed stronger plantar flexion strength, and performed better in the vertical jumping task. It can be concluded from this research that there is no major disadvantage to performance of gross motor skills for the children in this project with low arched asymptomatic feet.

Leung Kam Lun. / "July 2003." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-201). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Thesis (D.PT.)--Sage Colleges, 2010. / "May 2010." "A Capstone project for PTY 768 presented to the faculty of The Department of Physical Therapy Sage Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Physical Therapy." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D.PT.)--Sage Colleges, 2010. / "May 2010." "A Capstone project for PTY 768 presented to the faculty of The Department of Physical Therapy Sage Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Physical Therapy." Includes bibliographical references.

Flatfoot is one of the most common conditions seen in pediatric podiatry practice. Flatfoot is a term used to describe a recognizable clinical deformity created by malalignment at several adjacent joints. Clinically, a flatfoot is one that has a low or absent longitudinal arch. There enough many studies designed to assess the flatfoot and body posture of young schoolchildren but it is difficult to find out the data concerning the preschool children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficiency of long-term exercise training procedures designed for the treatment of flatfoot of pre-school children and influence of flatfoot to posture. Subject in this study was 61 pre-school children. To 32 of them was set the diagnosis of flatfoot and during three years the exercise training procedures was applied. The results obtained during the study has showed that for 44 percent of these children has not any deformations of foots, so the designed exercise training procedures were effective. The other task of this study was to assess the influence of flatfoot to posture. Children who has a foot deformations has more frequent postural problems in comparison to healthy foot children. The higher influence to body posture has a asymmetry in flatfoot than the degree or value of flatfoot. On the other hand the employed computer program “Autocad” was suitable for evaluation of postural peculiarities of children and allowed to perform a precise measurements and analysis of obtained... [to full text]

Adult-Acquired Flatfoot is a degenerative condition in which the ligaments and tendons supporting the arch deteriorate eventually leading to arch collapse. This deterioration can occur at various locations along the arch creating a number of different patterns of collapse. Surgical treatment for adult acquired flatfoot consists of a combination of various osteotomies. Although general guidelines exist, there is no systematic way to determine which combination of osteotomies should be used to correct a given foot deformity. Computer simulation with finite element analysis might provide an analytical tool to optimize the choice of osteotomy location and size. By dividing a complex problem into simpler components, finite element analysis allows for the solution of complex problems by solving a large set of simple equations. Finite element analysis has previously been used to study effects of diabetes, shoe design, and gait analysis in the foot. These studies have oversimplified geometry and material properties of foot tissues which limits the true mechanical behavior. The goal of this study was to create an anatomically and physiologically correct finite element model of the foot and ankle. To create a healthy foot model, CT scans were collected from one cadaver foot to create a three-dimensional cortical bone model in 3D Slicer software. The cortical bone model was imported into SolidWorks to create the geometry for trabecular bone, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons. Journal articles, textbooks, and other resources were used in order to create realistic cartilage, ligament, and tendon models (Netter & Colacino, 1997; see also Boss & Hintermann, 2002; Campbell et al., Apr. 2014; Golanó et al., 2010; Mahadevan). Final approval of the model’s geometry was obtained from the orthopaedic surgeon supervising this study. After completing the anatomically correct geometry of the foot, it was imported into finite element software (ANSYS, http://www.ansys.com/). The model was meshed with solid elements only: tetrahedral elements for the foot and hexahedral elements for the ground support. Linear elastic material properties were assigned to all bodies. Boundary conditions and contacts were created including a fixed ground support and bonded and frictionless contacts. A body weight force was applied to the tibia and tendon forces were applied to simulate loading during midstance. The frictionless contacts created a nonlinear problem that caused the simulation to fail to converge to a solution. Abnormally high stresses and deformation were found in the results. The foot model failed to converge to realistic results because of the current model’s complexity. An anatomically correct foot model was successfully created, but simplifications need to be made to the model in the future for convergence. Recommendations for simplification include modeling ligaments as truss elements, adding spring elements to tendons, and adding soft tissue or fat pads to the model. After simplifications are completed and realistic results are obtained, Flatfoot conditions and surgeries can be simulated and analyzed.

Patients with pes planovalgus deformity often have coexisting spring ligament pathology. A primary repair of the ligament may fail during weightbearing due to chronic degeneration of the ligamentous tissue. Augmentation with a suture tape has been suggested to strengthen the repair. Limited data exist regarding flatfoot reconstruction with augmented spring ligament repair using a suture tape. This is a review of 57 consecutive patients who had flatfoot reconstruction with concomitant spring ligament augmented repair between July 2014 and August 2017. Weightbearing radiographic parameters were obtained preoperatively and compared to radiographs at an average time of 62 ± 46.5 (range 20-220) weeks postoperative. Significant improvements were seen in the radiographic parameters evaluated. Five patients had subsequent operations including one deep infection, 2 hardware removals remote to the spring ligament augmentation, 1 ankle arthrodesis, and 1 triple arthrodesis. Concomitant spring ligament repair augmented with a suture tape was a safe procedure that contributed to radiographic correction in a consecutive series of 57 patients undergoing flatfoot deformity correction.

Adult Acquired Flatfoot Deformity (AAFD) is a progressive disease characterized by mechanical degeneration of the soft tissue structure in the arch of the foot that leads to changes in joint alignment. Surgical intervention commonly via tendon transfer and bony osteotomy is used to restore arch architecture, however there is a lack of quantitative assessments that measure the success of the surgical correction in vivo. Using plantar pressures via Tekscan® HR Mat and surveys (SF-36, FAOS), pre-operative and post-operative measures for six participants were defined, analyzed and compared. A paired t-test showed significant lateral shift for percent body weight during walking postoperativelyin the forefoot and midfoot regions. However, arch index measurement showed no significant change. The FAOS survey score also improved statistically postoperatively. The surgical correction was successful as deemed by some of these quantitative and qualitative measures.

Title of diploma thesis: Specific foot changes in figure skaters and options for their physiotherapeutic intervention. Objective: The purpose of this thesis is to research available literary sources concerning anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics of foot and foot arch in relation to specific foot changes resulting from figure skating. In addition, the thesis seeks to research various physiotherapeutic approaches which could be applied in prevention, compesation or therapy of these changes. Methods: This diploma thesis has descriptively-analytical character. It is structured in the form of literary research. Results: On the basis of the researched literary sources, this thesis provides a comprehensive picture on the topic of foot in figure skaters. Based on the research, the thesis identifies foot changes resulting from deformation of the foot in the skate. Subsequently, the thesis discussess the possible physiotherapeutic approaches which can be applied in prevention, compensation or therapy of these changes. Key words: foot, figure skating, flatfoot, physiotherapy