Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the influence of a negative shoe sole on the intracompartmental pressure in the anterior tibial compartment. In 35 volunteers, the compartment pressure was documented during a 20-min. run on a treadmill with conventional running shoes and with running shoes with a negative sole. Besides the documentation of the compartment pressure we also performed a gait analysis. The comparison of gait cycle between the conventional shoe and the shoe with a negative sole showed remarkable differences. With the conventional shoe, plantar flexion after initial contact was 16 degrees compared to 6 degrees with the special shoe. Duration of plantar flexion with the normal shoe was 0.17 sec. compared to 0.1 sec. with the special shoe. The intraindividual comparison of the individual pressure curves revealed evident differences in most of the subjects. The comparison of maximum pressures of each volunteer after running with the normal shoe as well as with the special shoe showed a decrease in the maximum pressure level when using the special shoe. The maximum pressures with the normal shoe (59.7 +/- 9.1 mm Hg) were significantly higher than with the special shoe (36.5 +/- 11.8 mm Hg) (p < 0.001). The comparison of the mean pressure showed similar results. With the normal shoe a mean pressure of 47.1 mm Hg (+/- 9.0 mm Hg) was measured compared to 29.8 mm Hg (+/- 11.0 mm Hg) with the special shoe (p < 0.001). Regarding the subjective comfort of the special shoe 18 subjects did not find any difference in comparison with the normal shoe.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)