The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of personalized, adaptive, current-steering functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the lower leg to improve gait in people with foot drop.

Adaptive, current-steering FES enables precise control over dorsiflexor and evertor muscles, allowing for personalized treatment to correct key foot drop characteristics including dorsiflexion at heel strike and ankle inversion during swing phase. All participants will receive adaptive FES of the dorsiflexors and evertors during back-to-back walking sets. Participants completed up to three walking sets of unstimulated walking (pre-test) followed by lower-leg stimulated walking (post-test). The primary outcome measures include ankle dorsiflexion at heel strike and mean ankle inversion during swing phase. Secondary outcome measures include foot angle at heel strike and single-side heel strike to toe strike time (heel-toe time).

Inclusion Criteria:

Adults aged 18-70

• Lower extremity impairment that makes walking difficult or uncomfortable
• Capable of sitting, standing, and walking independently or with assistance
• Able to walk at least 50 feet independently or with assistance
• Able to understand and follow basic instructions in English

Exclusion Criteria:

• Have non-reversible damage to the peripheral nervous system
• Have underlying pre-existing conditions like thrombosis/hemorrhage, severe epilepsy or other seizure disorder, severe atrophy or history of implanted electrical devices
• Have cognitive impairment that would prevent you from fully understanding the study and ability to provide informed consent
• Have lower motor neuron disease or injury that may impair response to stimulation
• Are pregnant
• Are under the age of 18 years old
• Have skin conditions of the affected lower limb, including cuts, burns or lesions

1 year

This study did not include the collection of certain traditional gait analysis metrics including spatial measures like gait speed and stride length as we relied solely on the on-body device for all data collection and metric extraction. Additionally, we were not able to compare functional electrical stimulation treatment impacts relative to standard of care, i.e. ankle-foot orthosis, in a randomized control trial (RCT). An RCT remains a future research study.