Current weight-bearing instruction protocols involve non-quantitative guidelines, based on the patient’s amount of discomfort while walking or subjective perception. However, the interpretation of these instructions is inaccurate and subjective, and varies among clinicians and patients. New biofeedback technology concepts are beginning to be implemented in the rehabilitation process. The Smart-Step system is a new weight bearing monitoring system that assists clinicians and physical therapists to accurately assess, train and monitor patients’ weight bearing capabilities.
During treatment, the patients were trained by the PT in FWB according to the instruction of the surgeon. Data of age and body weight was collected from all patients. Patients in both study groups used the SmartStep System. This system consists of an in-shoe inflatable insole, pressure sensors and a control unit for data storage. The control unit provides also an audio signal whenever the patient was bearing body weight at a recommended and pre-calibrated level.
Data obtained in both groups (in kg) during the pre-test and during the gait tests was converted into percentage of the patients BW. The means of the differences between the pre-test results and the gait test results in both groups were 9 + 6.7% and 1.5 + 6% in the study and control group, respectably (p=0.0002).