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The Primary Reasons for Wearing a Walking Cast, Its Types & Do You Need Crutches with a Walking Cast?

A walking cast is used to immobilize or restrict the ankle movement when suffering from an injury when a person is walking.(1) A walking cast is commonly used to alleviate different types of injuries to the lower leg and foot. The main purpose of using a walking cast depends on the condition the patient is suffering from; however, more often than not the goal of a walking cast is to aid in healing post-operatively or to completely avoid surgery if possible.

What are the Types of Walking Cast?

Depending on the level of immobilization or support needed by the patient, a walking cast or a boot can be soft or stiff. The overall consensus is the more stiff the boot or the cast, the better it is for ankle immobility. The sole of the walking cast or boot also differs where some can have a flat sole, which is skid-proof sole beneficial for standing, but makes it difficult to walk for long period of time. Some boots have rocker sole designed to make the rolling forward motion easy when walking.

The Primary Reasons for Wearing a Walking Cast

The Primary Reasons for Wearing a Walking Cast

As we get older, there are various things which happen to our feet and legs. One can sprain an ankle, trip on a step, or God forbid something worse like torn tendon or fracture of the leg. Accidents need not cause all these injuries. Aging also causes core weaknesses and imbalances, which results in persistent leg or foot pain.

One can grin and bear it through conditioning or exercise routines. In other cases when your feet and legs are not able to heal on their own, then a walking cast is recommended by the doctors.

As mentioned before there are many types of walking casts and boots and they are nothing but a special type of shoe which helps in giving medical benefits in case of injury or fracture of the foot or leg. A walking cast is an orthopedic device which is worn to speed the healing process by protecting the ankle and foot in case of fracture, acute sprain, severe sprain or problems with shin splints or basically any type of leg or foot injury.(1, 2)

The primary goal of the walking cast is to provide stability to your foot to aid in healing when you are moving about.(3) Depending on the size, a walking cast or a boot can be up to the knee or just extend over the ankle.

We humans move about a lot and this can hinder with the pace of the healing from any injury. One needs to be extremely patient to acquire complete healing with being completely immobile. However, if you have achieved partial healing and want to get up and move about, then here is where a walking cast comes into play. A walking cast is used to allow a person to move about and putting weight on the injured foot in a safe manner. The walking cast helps by stabilizing and holding your foot or ankle in place, so the healing can continue and you can go about your daily chores, albeit at a slower pace.

What is the Impact of the Walking Cast on Treatment? (4, 5)

The type of walking cast prescribed by the doctor has quite a significant impact on the treatment. Stiffer and longer walking casts can be tiring for the patient and are often used for those patients who are recuperating from acute injuries, like rupture of the Achilles tendon. Softer and shorter walking casts or boots help in stabilizing the ankle after suffering a sprain; however, they but don’t usually help with immobilizing the joint as much as lessening the atrophy of the muscle.

What are the Features of Walking Cast?

All walking boots or walking casts consist of different types of straps for the Velcro to keep the boot in place. Other than this, some walking casts can have removable sleeves which one can wash to keep the cast or the boot clean and smelling good if it is going to be worn for several weeks.

Things to Remember When Using a Walking Cast

Experts say that whenever one is using walking cast or boot, one should always pay attention to the other limbs and joints when walking. The back, hips and knee will bear more weight and movement than usual when walking. The knee joints are more vulnerable and get tired easily till the time you are accustomed to the ankle immobilization, more so if the walking cast is stiff.

How Does Wearing a Walking Cast Feel?

When you initially start wearing a walking cast or a boot, then you will feel a bit awkward and it takes time to get used to it. In summer times especially when it is hot it can be difficult to wear a walking cast.

It is also advisable to be aware of surface on which you will be walking with the walking cast on. Some individuals can find walking with a walking cast on a slippery experience. Snowy or rainy surfaces can also be risky to walk and one needs to take utmost care. Walking on muddy or grassy regions will cause difficulty in the mobility also.

Do You Need Crutches with a Walking Cast?

The purpose of using a walking cast is to stabilize your injured foot and to remove the extra weight from your injured foot. Well, even with a walking cast, it is helpful to use some form of assistive device, such as a cane or walker. Crutches are not the only thing to be used. It all depends on the degree of the injury you have and your doctor will recommend you accordingly. Your doctor is the best person to advise you if you need any other sort of assistive device with your walking cast to avoid any re-injury.

References:

Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:July 15, 2022

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