Orthotics

Our expert orthotic team design orthosis that best meets your needs

Blatchford Orthotics care is dedicated to promoting and maintaining the highest levels of independence and function for patients of all ages and abilities, with specialist treatment of musculoskeletal conditions caused by illness, injury or congenital anomaly.

Our Orthotists create a range of precise, custom-fit items, from foot orthoses to complex bracing systems and spinal correction products. Orthoses can be developed to prevent injury to joints or body segments or to help preclude an existing problem getting worse. Treatments encompass: adults, paediatrics, neuromuscular pathology, spinal, cranial, sports, and upper and lower extremity. Often the goal is to increase mobility and functional abilities while decreasing rehabilitation time.

Suitability

Our expert orthotic team can design an orthosis that best meets each user’s individual needs and are suitable for a wide range of both orthopaedic and neurological conditions.

Our advanced composite orthotic range represents the very latest advancements in orthotic technology and has been developed to restore function and independence in patients who may have lost mobility following injury, disease or congenital conditions.

By providing support, and relieving pain and weakness, our custom carbon orthoses help to ensure users can continue living life to the fullest.

Adults

Our range of treatment areas include musculoskeletal disorders, arthritic conditions, diabetic foot care, cerebrovascular accident, preoperative and postoperative orthotics, supports and braces and a variety of other adult diseases and conditions.

Paediatrics

Bespoke and often colourful orthotics designed for children with acute, chronic and severe physical impairments, such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and muscular dystrophy. We also specialise in the treatment of babies with deformational plagiocephaly.

Neuromuscular Disease

This service uses a range of rehabilitation techniques and both bespoke and off-the-shelf orthoses to treat patients with multiple sclerosis, post-polio and hereditary diseases or conditions that affect daily functional abilities.

Spinal

We offer specialist treatment from scoliosis to degenerative and traumatic spinal pathologies. High tech. options are available for spinal cord injury patients to assist walking and positioning for comfort and skin care regimes.

Sports

Low profile solutions for sports related injuries: we cover post injury, post-operative, functional and preventative treatments.

Custom Orthotics

Our advanced composite orthotic range represents the very latest advancements in orthotic technology and has been developed to restore function and independence in patients who may have lost mobility following injury, disease or congenital conditions.

By providing support, and relieving pain and weakness, our custom carbon orthoses help to ensure users can continue living life to the fullest.

Unique Prescription
Our patients’ needs are at the heart of our orthotic design. Every patient undergoes a personalised evaluation from one of our expert orthotists, who specialise in the latest custom carbon designs. Together they will set realistic goals to help ensure the user achieves their fullest rehabilitation potential.

Advanced Materials, Optimised Designs
The use of advanced ‘pre-preg’ composites, such as carbon, Kevlar and Dynemma that have be pre-impregnated with partially cured epoxy resin allows for the production of mechanically superior orthoses. This takes clinical possibilities to a new level compared with plastics and metals.

Pre-preg carbon fibre is best known for its use in military aircraft and Formula One racing cars, and more recently by Paralympic sprinters in the form of carbon running blades. There are many benefits to using these materials for orthotics.

• High strength – pre-preg carbon fibre can have a high level of stiffness and high fatigue limits making it ideal for the most active of clients.
• Durability – significantly more durable, retaining their functionality significantly longer than conventional orthoses.
• Light weight – lighter than traditional materials such as plastic, or even acrylic laminated carbon fibre, without compromising on the physical properties this means the client is never held back by the weight of their orthosis.
• Thinner – because of the strength of the material, we can make the orthosis thinner making it easier to accommodate the orthosis comfortably within a shoe.
• Energy Return – composites have proven energy storing capability and this can be capitalised within our orthotic design, exactly where the client needs it and with a high degree of accuracy.
• Customisation – Not only can a pre-preg device be made bespoke to the client’s shape, pre-preg materials allows the clinician to design sections that are stiff or flexible, bespoke to the client’s needs.
• Repairable – unlike plastics and metal orthoses, composite orthoses lend themselves to repair.
• Style – Composites produce orthoses with a consistently high quality finish and the material lends itself well to individual art work and hydrographic printing for further customisation.

With purpose-built pre-preg carbon fibre manufacturing facilities on-site, our Orthotists work closely with the manufacturing team to ensure an optimal design specification for each individual user’s needs. 

Rehabilitation

For best results we recommend that tailored, intensive rehabilitation is undertaken when new orthoses are prescribed. Evidence suggests that results are 30% better* when combined with a tailored rehabilitation programme.

Blatchford Clinic provides bespoke out-patient or intensive residential rehabilitation packages to help achieve long term rehabilitation goals, whether they are to walk pain-free or to return to sports such as running.

Our specialist Physiotherapists are experienced in working with advanced orthotic devices and can ensure the user learns to walk and run again in the most efficient way. They can also help to identify other areas of muscle imbalance and provide general strength and conditioning work to ensure the best functional outcomes are achieved.