An Interesting Drop Foot Customer

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I felt the need to share this experience.

We had a woman who brought her husband in our store today. After a failed back surgery, he was left with almost no sensation in his right leg, and had drop foot. The only place he had sensation was on the plantar aspect of his foot. He walked into the store hunched over with a cane and a side-to-side, rolling unstable gait.

When he explained his situation and his drop foot, I was surprised he wasn't wearing an AFO. Instead he was wearing a Bioness L300 Drop foot system, consisting of a knee harness with a control unit, that receives information from a sensor attached to the shoe. The shoe provides information whether the foot is on or off the ground. When the shoe makes contact, it sends a signal instructing the unit to make an electrical stimulus to dorsiflex the ankle. Since this patient also had a tendency to over-supinate, the unit was programmed to help him compensate.
Here's some info on the unit:
http://www.bioness.com/NESS_L300_for_Foot_Drop.php

He had tried several brands of shoes, without success, to help improve his gait. Conventional shoes weren't doing the job. Not enough sensation and too much imbalance for a rocker sole shoe. So, I decided to try him in a pair of Z-CoiL shoes. At first, the experience was so disorienting, he almost buckled. But I took his arm and walked with him. I explained how the coil would reduce GRF forces, store energy, and propel him across a forefoot rocker.

After about 15 minutes of walking, he got the hang of it. He picked up his pace, was standing upright, and he was walking with a steady, upright gait, instead of being hunched over and rolling side-to-side. He remarked that for the first time in 2 years, he could feel his right foot functioning normally. It was amazing to watch the improvement of his gait in such a short period of time.

I've been fitting Z-CoiL shoes for seven years, but it was really interesting to see these shoes work in conjunction with technology (Bioness L300) I'd never seen before.

Today was a good day. Just wanted to share.