Immobilization With Removable Walking Brace for Treatment of Chronic Foot and Ankle Pain
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Fifty feet and ankles in 47 patients (three bilateral) (26 women and 21 men; average age, 44+/-15 years) were treated for chronic foot and ankle pain (duration: minimum, three months; average, 27+/-35 months; range, three to 132 months). Evaluation included detailed history, physical examination, and radiography. Initial treatment consisted of immobilization (full weight-bearing) using a removable walking brace (23.5 hours per day, including in bed at night), with standing and walking limited to activities of daily living. Follow-up evaluation included assessment of pain response and repeat physical examination. There was a history of trauma in 32 (64%) feet and ankles. Braces (pneumatic in 31 [62%] and double-upright in 19 [38%] feet and ankles) immobilized the ankle in neutral position and included a rigid rocker sole. After an average of 13+/-10 weeks (range, three to 50 weeks) of brace use, pain symptoms were improved in 35 (70%), unchanged in 11 (22%), and worse in four (8%) feet and ankles. Physical examination was improved in 43 (86%) feet and ankles, unchanged in six (12%) feet and ankles, and worse in one (2%) foot and ankle. In all 50 feet and ankles, the average number of abnormal physical findings decreased from initial (6+/-3 abnormal physical findings) to follow-up evaluation (3+/-3 abnormal physical findings) (P < 0.001). The average number of diagnoses per foot and ankle decreased from initial (4+/-1 diagnoses per foot and ankle) to follow-up evaluation (2+/-1 diagnoses per foot and ankle) (P < 0.0001). Improvement of pain was independent of duration of pre-existing symptoms, patient age, gender, or type of brace used. In summary, immobilization with a removable walking brace may improve chronic foot and ankle pain and localize the primary source of symptoms.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".