Articulated ankle-foot orthoses associated with home-based task-specific training improve functional mobility in patients with stroke: a randomized clinical trial.

Introduction: We compared fixed and articulated ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) in home-based mobility tasks to assess short-term mobility, dynamic balance, quality of life, anxiety/depression, disability level, stroke severity, autonomy, human functioning, and patient satisfaction.

Methods: This was a two-arm, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding, and a complete case analysis involving patients with chronic stroke. The participants were randomized into two groups: fixed ( = 24) and articulated ( = 23) AFOs.