Gait Analysis: A Critical Tool in Diabetic Foot Health

Diabetes brings with it a range of potential health hazards, not least among them the foot ulcer. According to an article in the journal Gerontology, “Approximately 18–34% of individuals with diabetes will develop a DFU [diabetic foot ulcer] within their lifetime. Infection and lower limb amputation are serious secondary concerns, as well as the fact that life expectancy declines following the development of a DFU.”

The article goes on to share that this creates an enormous economic burden, which is only made more complicated by the fact that people with diabetes often have trouble feeling pain in their feet. This allows the problem to fester until it becomes severe or even infected. Once that happens, the road to recovery is arduous indeed.

Diabetic foot ulcers can affect anyone, but the issue is most prevalent in the elderly, who are likewise most susceptible to lifestyle changes that cause deterioration in their health. (Without properly functioning feet, it becomes more difficult to get exercise and provide self-care.) It is, therefore, no surprise to orthopedists, podiatrists, and orthotists that we need a better system to help prevent such scenarios.

Pressure mapping is the solution that every podiatry clinic and practice needs to employ.

Plantar Pressure and Diabetic Foot Health

Understanding where areas of high pressure occur is the first step in helping prevent diabetic foot ulcers. Gait analysis systems that can identify where the foot is experiencing the most stress without requiring that the patient report their symptoms (which they may not be able to do due to neuropathy) are a critical step in the right direction—no pun intended.

A pressure map can inform footwear designs and choices and give clinicians the data they need to educate their patients properly. Once patients understand how to change their gait, adjust their activity, or choose their footwear, they can prevent new pressure injuries in the foot and, if needed, begin to heal.

So how does it work?

Mapping Plantar Pressure: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

While plantar pressure mapping has various benefits, there are some downsides.

The Good

Plantar pressure mapping works by a straightforward principle. Sensor-based equipment is placed under the patient’s foot, and pressure distribution readings are taken across the plantar surface. The available equipment types are relatively versatile, from stance pads to walkways to in-shoe insole systems. While that’s positive, there are some downsides to current technologies.

The Bad

Unfortunately, pressure mapping is often limited to devices in the lab. This prevents clinicians from mimicking the real-world environments in which their patients exist, which can lead to incorrect or difficult diagnoses and poorly formulated treatment plans. That, in turn, can lead to client and clinician dissatisfaction, with each feeling as though the relationship isn’t working because the condition isn’t improving.

The Ugly

Even worse, much of today’s existing equipment is unreliable and inefficient, requires constant recalibration, isn’t easily switched between patients, and requires extensive time testing and analyzing each patient.

Luckily, wireless insole pressure mapping systems can fix these problems. Instead of confining people to an artificial lab-based situation, slip-in wireless insoles are so subtle that they are unnoticeable to those who have feeling in their feet and completely undetectable to those who lack it, no matter the state of their mobility.

How It Works

Clinical insoles improve patient outcomes without much work on the clinician’s part, so you don’t have to adjust your workflow to improve drastically. With the insoles inside the patient’s shoes, you can measure pressure while standing, walking, in various postures, and even in yoga poses.

All you have to do is insert the insoles into the patient’s shoes and ask them to move around. The system will gather data for you at short intervals and with high definition and transform it into intelligible information in the form of visual images and data summaries. Using this, you can create significantly better treatment plans.

Clinical insoles allow you to monitor patient progress over time and tweak treatment plans as necessary. Gone are the days of hoping for the best; now, you can give patients the best every time, furthering their health and increasing their trust in you.

Benefits of a Reliable Pressure Mapping System

Once you have a reliable pressure mapping system integrated into your practice, which is relatively simple right out of the box, you can rely on the following benefits:

• More reliable data that reduces rework;
• More accurate diagnoses;
• More accurately crafted patient protocols;
• Treatment outcomes that are easier to predict and more reliable;
• Reduced incidence of pressure wounds;
• Increased healing time where wounds do exist due to smart offloading strategies;
• An easier time testing, tailoring, and prescribing orthotics and other footwear; and
• Increased patient satisfaction.

Improving Service and Outcomes at Your Clinic With XSENSOR

Even experts with decades of experience under their belts have difficulty understanding the minute intricacies of stance and gait. New clinicians are at an even greater disadvantage. At the same time, nurses and ancillary staff may lack the long training necessary to get a solid bead on what happens during the gait measurement process.

If you want to help diabetic patients avoid adverse outcomes such as amputation, it’s time to fill in the gaps. XSENSOR’s Intelligent Insoles do just that, providing you with the software/hardware combo you need to collect even the most sensitive data-based information and put it to work.

Get ready to understand pressure and gait like never before right out of the box. Requiring minimal setup and infrequent recalibration, Intelligent Insoles work on every patient in your clinic without extensive adjustment and customization. All you have to do is set up the system once, and you’re ready to go with instant positive outcomes for your practice.

Interested in what Intelligent Insoles can do for you? Get in touch with us today.