AFO orthoses in children with CP: the effectiveness is associated with the gait pattern.

Despite the AFO orthoses for children with CP are a widely used tool, their effectiveness has not yet been clearly demonstrated by experimental evidence, both for what concerns the effects on the walking pattern, and for what regards the aspects of activity and performance [1]. In the literature, the majority of the studies that evaluates the effectiveness of orthoses does not divide the children according to the pattern of movement, and bases the evaluation on uniform targets for all. The present work, dividing the patients into 4 forms (where the patients are more skilled from 1st to 4th form, Ferrari et al. [2]), tested the effectiveness of orthoses, demonstrating the need for an individualized approach based on the walking pattern of each single patient.