Background: Calcaneal apophysitis is a self-limiting disorder that often affects adolescents with a high level of activity and leads to increased pain severity, impairments in gait parameters, and poor health-related quality of life. Objective: To investigate the combination of custom-made insoles and exercise on foot pressure distribution, spatial-temporal gait parameters, and pain intensity in patients with calcaneal apophysitis.Study design: A one-group pretest-posttest design. Methods: Forty patients, aged between 8 and 15 years, diagnosed with calcaneal apophysitis, were included in this study. Patients were asked to use the custom-made insoles and to perform a home exercise program for 3 days a week. The duration of treatment was 4 weeks. The pain severity was evaluated with the Visual Analog Scale. The spatial-temporal gait parameters and foot pressure distribution were assessed with the Zebris FDM-THM-S treadmill system before and after the treatment. Results: At posttreatment assessment, there were significant changes in step length, stance phase percentage, swing phase percentage, and gait speed (P , 0.05), except step width and cadence (P . 0.05). Moreover, significant differences were found in forefoot, midfoot, and rearfoot pressure distribution (P , 0.05). There was also a significant decrease in pain intensity during activity compared to the pretreatment (P , 0.05). Conclusion: Our study results suggest that the combination of the custom-made insoles and exercise program created improvements in spatial-temporal gait parameters and foot pressure distribution by reducing the pain severity.

Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease which predominantly affects the axial skeleton with or without radiographic damage. 1 Radiographic axSpA affects men more than women, while non-radiographic axSpA has an equal gender distribution and its peak incidence is approximately at age 30. 2,3 Axial SpA is characterized by functional impairment, pain, reduced mobility, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and poor quality of life (QoL). 4 Non-radiographic axSpA also causes impairment in physical function and QoL similar to radiographic axSpA. 5,6 A decrease in QoL is associated with poor physical function, 7 increased disease activity, fatigue, pain, 8 anxiety, and depression 9 in axSpA patients.

Lateral ankle sprain is the most frequent musculoskeletal injury among elite athletes and it constitutes approximately 25-30% of all injuries. 1 Up to 40% of lateral ankle sprain recurrences occur in 6-18 months after the first ankle sprain. 2 Approximately 30-40% of that patients experience chronic ankle in-