Year: 2023 | Month: November | Volume: 13 | Issue: 11 | Pages: 223-229
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20231127
Correlation of Intrinsic Foot Muscle Strength with Forefoot and Hindfoot Posture in Patients with Flat Foot
Shruti Zungare1, Dr. Abhijit Satralkar2
1Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Neurophysiotherapy Department), P.E.S Modern College of Physiotherapy, Pune, India.
2HOD and Professor (Neurophysiotherapy Department), P.E.S Modern College of Physiotherapy, Pune, India
Corresponding Author: Shruti Zungare
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Foot is the main structure involved in locomotory activity. The anatomical segments of foot involve forefoot, midfoot and hindfoot. Pes planus is a common foot pathology constituting of collapse of the medial longitudinal arch, foot abduction at the talonavicular joint, and hindfoot valgus. Regardless of the type of flat foot, complications involve low back pain, knee pain, bunions, hammertoes, balance deficit, and increased chances of falls in elderly. Plantar intrinsic foot muscles are the small group of muscles responsible to maintain the medial longitudinal arch and various treatment protocols designed to manage pathologies related to flat foot.
Method: In this study total 130 patients with flat foot were selected and foot posture was obtained for forefoot and hindfoot with foot print analysis. The intrinsic foot muscle strength was measured with modified sphygmomanometer. Further values of both the foot postures were plotted on a graph with the values of intrinsic foot muscle strength to obtain a correlational relationship between the two.
Results: Intrinsic foot muscle strength showed a negative correlation with forefoot posture and no correlation was obtained with the hindfoot posture.
Conclusions: The intrinsic foot strength is negatively correlated with the forefoot posture in patients with flat foot i.e., with increasing amount of flat foot due to forefoot posture, the plantar intrinsic foot muscle strength declines, and no correlation of hindfoot posture with the strength suggests minimal contribution of hindfoot posture for strength deficit in flat foot.
Key words: pes planus, plantar intrinsic foot muscle [PIFM], Modified sphygmomanometer, staheli arch index, chippaux smirak index,