APOS® Training Shoe
The APOS® training shoe is a new approach to the treatment of Osteoarthritic pain.
The Apos® shoe is used to treat severe osteoarthritis when standard physiotherapy treatments have failed. It is an alternative option to knee or hip surgery.
This NICE approved treatment option works by moving the pods at the bottom of the shoe, to offload the forces around your painful hip or knee.
How does it work?
Osteoarthritis is painful because the joint surfaces of the bone are no longer cushioned by cartilage. As you walk, forces run from your foot, up into your knees and hips and one of the roles of the cartilage is to absorb these forces.
The pods on the bottom of the shoes, alter the way your foot hits the floor and redirects the forces away from the damaged part of your knee. This allows you to walk without pain.
One of the reasons severe osteoarthritis is hard to treat, is because exercising is painful. The pods redistribute the forces meaning there is no pain to limit your movement allowing you to strengthen.
Due to the pods being convex in shape, they create a slight wobble when you walk. This wobble wakes up the muscles of your legs and encourages them to strengthen.
This means that, over time, your leg is strengthened in the new movement pattern and you can walk without pain, even when not wearing the shoes.
What happens during the assessment?
The Assessment session for the shoe takes around 1.5hrs. During this time we will assess your joints and analyse how you walk.
We use an app to give us information on key walking parameters, such as how long your step length is and how long you stay on each leg while you walk.
Along with your history and our physical assessment, this allows us to calibrate the pods on the bottom of the shoes.
We ask you to walk in the shoes and let us know what is hurting, we then alter the pod position until we either relieve the pain, or reduce it significantly.
There is no charge for this initial consultation and it allows both us and you to check that you will benefit from the treatment.
How do you use the shoes?
Once you have had the shoes calibrated and ordered them, they are shipped directly to your house already set up and ready to wear.
Initially you would wear the shoes for around an hour a day, during that hour you would do short walks around the house several times.
The initial short walks allow your muscles to start to adapt, but not overwork.
Every week, you then increase the length of time you are walking in the shoes within the hour.
There are 3 follow up sessions during the year long program, where we reassess your walking and alter the pods as necessary.
As the program progresses, you will find less pain even when you are not wearing the shoes. By the end of the 12 months, the aim is that you are no longer in pain.
What does the package involve?
The Apos® treatment program lasts for 12 months and includes:
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The Apos shoe
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All pods and accessories needed during the year
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An initial 1.5hr assessment
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3 follow up sessions with a Apos® trained therapist.
