Preventing ballerina with splints (dorsiflexion boots) vs. fixing ballerina

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Part of my recovery after tibias surgery is to wear these splints 22 hours/day.



Needless to say, they're extremely uncomfortable, and I can barely get an hour or two of sleep in them.

1. Which doctors who do tibias recommend these types of splints?

2. If the patient can hardly tolerate splints, what options are there for correcting ballerina foot and how long do they take? In other words, can one make peace of mind with sleeping without the splints, knowing they'll have to spend X weeks doing extra PT to correct drop foot? I'm trying to figure out if it's theoretically worth giving up on trying to sleep with the splints, and instead getting some quality sleep (hence better healing and mood during recovery).

("theoretically" because I'm doing femurs at the same time and can only *try to* "sleep" on my back anyway).

Found some related discussion, and this patient who ditched the splints, but wanted to see if others had more experience.

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Quote from: chibi on April 14, 2018, 12:46:03 PMI wonder if this is better to sleep with:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057M3TWC

I bought a very similar item, https://www.dme-direct.com/medspec-phantom-dorsal-night-splint, and it was actually worse. I'm looking at trying a few others:

https://www.dme-direct.com/aircast-dorsal-night-splint
https://www.dme-direct.com/ovation-medical-dorsal-night-splint
https://www.dme-direct.com/shop-by-product/foot-braces-brace/foot-drop-braces-brace/deroyal-pediatric-ankle-contracture-boot
http://www.docortho.com/pro-tec-night-splint.html

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OK, so after walking (with a walker, then cane, then unassisted) for the past 3.5 months since I stopped lengthening, I can say that walking weight-bearing (and having stopped lengthening, of course) has been far more effective at improving the dorsiflexion angle than PT.

So yes, I would advise wearing the dorsiflexion boots as much as you can, but "don't lose sleep over it". If you can't stand them, take them off. Once you can walk, your ankles will recover faster.

Of course, this is only my experience, and I've only lengthened 3.5cm in the tibias. The more you lengthen, the more you should wear those boots!