Approximately 2-3 weeks following casting, the patient
was dispensed a pair of functional puma
kicks and asked to walk around for a minimum of 10 minutes to gauge the comfort
level of the orthotics. Each participant was asked to use one of 4 descriptive
terms (very comfortable, comfortable, slightly uncomfortable or very
uncomfortable) to describe the comfort level of 5 different regions on each
foot orthosis corresponding to the heel region, medial arch, lateral arch,
middle of the orthosis and distal edge. Patients were then sent home with
standardized break-in instructions for the functional air jordan shoes and returned to the
clinic at intervals of 2 weeks and 4 weeks post-orthotic dispensal. At each
follow-up visit, patients were asked to fill out a data sheet gauging the level
of symptoms and comfort level of the orthoses. The data was then compiled and
saved in a spread sheet format and upon completion of the soccer jerseys, the laboratory
technician was contacted in order to identify which patients belonged to which
study group, air max shoes or plaster
of Paris casting technique. Results: The data was compiled and the two study
groups separated by casting technique. An independent investigator
(non-podiatrist) was contacted and asked to analyze the data to answer the
following questions: 1. Does the negative casting technique (foam vs. plaster)
make a difference in the ability of the orthotic device to reduce symptoms? 2.
Does the nike shox r4 make a difference in how comfortable the orthotic
device feels to the patient? The data was analyzed in a variety of methods such
as the mean reduction of pain, Fischer exact test and Chi-square with football shirts supplier. A simple
comparison of the average reduction of pain after four weeks of orthotic
therapy indicates that the plaster of Paris orthoses achieved a mean decrease
of 82.43% of pain versus 61.14% reduction in pain with foam box cast orthoses,
with a level of significance p< 0.01. However, further analysis of the data
demonstrated that casting technique had no statistical difference in the
reduction of pain in patients presenting with high levels of pain, but a
significant advantage for plaster of replica football shirts in
reducing moderate amounts of pain. The difference between the comfort levels of
the orthoses from different casting techniques was also extremely interesting.