A quantitative assessment of healing sandals and postoperative shoes in offloading the neuropathic diabetic foot

The purpose of this report is to compare plantar pressures between custom healing sandals and postoperative shoes using unmodified prescription shoe gear as a control. Using a repeat measures design, we recorded the plantar forefoot pressures of eight patients classified as diabetic foot category 1 (neuropathy, no significant deformity, no history of ulceration) with each ambulating in three devices: 1) unmodified prescription shoe gear, 2) postoperative shoe gear, and 3) a custom-fabricated healing sandal. Each subject served as his or her own control. The healing sandal significantly reduced plantar forefoot pressure in all areas of the forefoot except the fifth metatarsal head. The postoperative shoe did not significantly reduce pressure at any site in the forefoot when compared with unmodified prescription shoe gear.