Development of Ankle Dorsiflexion/Plantarflexion Exercise Device with Passive Mechanical Joint

We have been developing a passive motion exercise device for ankle dorsiflexion/plantarflexion that can be applied to patients with complicated ankle joint deformity. In conventional ankle motion exercise devices, a footplate remains parallel to the axis of ankle dorsiflexion/plantarflexion. This may cause pain by forcing the ankle position to fit in the device and may also cause uneven contact of the sole to the footplate during the exercise. Therefore, we proposed to make a device which enables passive dorsiflexion/plantarflexion movements of ankle with adjustable inversion/eversion. In this study, the effect of passive joint of inversion/eversion is examined using pressure distribution on the footplate.