Written by Megan Smith, PT
As an increasingly popular alternative to traditional casts, walking boots provide a lighter, more streamlined option for injury and post-surgical recovery. Delivering comfortable, adjustable support for lower leg, ankle, and foot injuries like sprains and stable fractures, walking boots are also commonly prescribed to alleviate pain and swelling from acute medical conditions such as plantar fasciitis and tendonitis. If you or a loved one would like to be able to mobilize safely during recovery, keep swelling and pain to a minimum, and protect your injured foot, ankle, or lower limb from further harm for speedier healing, a walking boot can provide an effective, affordable solution.
 | 1) Stabilizer - Standard Foot and Ankle Support View Product |
Don't let injuries stop you from achieving your goals and living a normal life. With the help of the USA ROM Walker - Standard Foot and Ankle Support, you can keep most of your daily activities as normal as possible. Feel independent and move at your own pace with the aid of this walking cast's rocker shape that allows you to move forward with a smooth, comfortable gait.
Grow confident with every step thanks to the United Ortho USA ROM Walker's non-skid soles that will protect you from falling and ensure a stable grip. Are you tired of using crutches? This remarkable walking boot will grant you most of your normal mobility back, so you can have a rest from your uncomfortable crutches in many instances.
Do you have a special event coming up and don't like to draw attention? The USA ROM Walker features a low-profile design that will easily match your clothes, or can be easily worn under them. Start walking confidently and independently while this walking boot keeps you safe and helps you recover without adding more stress.
The Aircast AirSelect Standard Walking Boot from Chattanooga grabs the 4th spot on our list with its advanced pneumatic boot design. Designed for comfort and engineered for healing, this patented CAM boot comes in a higher, standard format to provide maximum support and protection for healing injuries and other medical conditions that affect the lower leg, ankle, and foot. It’s especially indicated for severe ankle sprains, stable lower leg, foot, and ankle fractures, and for post-operative conditions. The AirSelect boot comes in 5 different sizes and its lightweight semi-rigid shell is conveniently heat-moldable and trimmable for comprehensive customization and a perfect fit. Its 3-strap system redistributes the pressure evenly.
Highlighting two distal air cells to provide adjustable, integrated, and intuitive inflation for customizable compression, this innovative medical boot also features a well-ventilated and open design and improved width around the ankle, contouring around the malleolus of the ankle to reduce pressure for more comfortable wearability. Walking comfort is further enhanced by the SoftStrike technology that absorbs and dissipates shocks combined with the low-profile rocker sole to promote a natural gait. Its skid-resistant rubber tread helps to prevent slips and falls and won’t leave marks.
Taking the 3rd position in our review with its wide range of style and size options, the United Ortho 360 Air Walker Walking Cast delivers versatile, streamlined support. Its circumferential, semi-rigid shell is lightweight for easy wearability, configured with medial and lateral air bladders so each user can customize the compression required. Helping to reduce edema, the Air Walker maximizes support and hastens healing for acute ankle sprains and strains, stable foot/ankle fractures, soft tissue injuries, and post-surgery.
Available in both short and standard formats, this popular CAM walking boot from United Ortho comes in four different sizes to ensure the perfect fit for every patient. Its shock-absorbing insole reduces pain with each step, while its toe guard protects the front of the foot from bumps and further injury. The Air Walker’s rocker sole helps to promote a natural gait, enabling you to get back to daily activities. Easy to adjust, apply, and remove, the Air Walker provides customizable comfort, protecting healing lower extremity injuries as it provides the support you need to mobilize securely.
The 2nd slot in our review goes to the Stabilizer - Ankle Support by United Ortho for its exceptionally beneficial design that’s offered at an economical price point. Delivering maximum stability and support, this medical boot uses plastic-molded uprights with steel reinforcements for dependable durability. It also allows patients to personalize the changing level of compression they require with its innovative medial and lateral air bladders, helping to reduce swelling and pain. Available in 5 different sizes, this ankle support also offers the option of replacement liners for optimal wearability.
Helping to enhance stability, the significantly wider footbed of the Stabilizer offers roomy comfort for patients with wider feet, while it also better accommodates the extra space needed for edema or bandages. This walking boot’s shock-absorbing insole is specially designed to reduce the impact from each heel strike, while its rocker sole facilitates easier walking and a natural gait so you can continue daily activities as you heal from lower extremity injury. The Stabilizer is ideal for acute ankle sprains, stable fractures of the lower leg, ankle, and foot, post-op, and soft tissue injuries.
As the taller version of its shorter cousin above, we gave the Stabilizer - Standard Foot and Ankle Support by United Ortho the 1st position on our list because of its additional support that can be used for more kinds of injuries. Like our number 3 selection, this lightweight walking boot features a wider footbed to enhance stability, evenly distributing pressure to optimize walking comfort. It also reduces the impact from each step with its shock-absorbing insole and includes the low-profile rocker bottom to ensure a natural gait.
The higher profile of this Stabilizer boot delivers added support and protection for healing a wide range of injuries and medical conditions affecting the lower leg, ankle, and foot. Its contoured strut design conforms to the leg, ensuring the best fit along with easier application and removal. The non-slip tread helps to prevent slips and falls, especially on wet or slippery surfaces. Available in 5 different sizes to ensure a perfect, adjustable fit for every patient, this taller Stabilizer is priced the same as the shorter version, providing exceptional value at a low price.
As a popular orthopedic device frequently prescribed for the treatment and stabilization of injuries and conditions affecting the feet, ankles, and lower legs, walking boots come in a diverse array of styles and sizes with a variety of features to suit the needs of their individual users. Also known as walking casts, walkers, ankle stabilizers, ortho boots, moon boots, medical boots, and CAM (Controlled Ankle Motion/Movement) walkers, all walking boots are removable, adjustable, and provide a much more lightweight, comfortable option to conventional plaster casts.
Formatted with rocker soles to encourage a natural gait, or flat soles for easier standing, most walking boots can be used on either the right or left foot. Here are some of the main features to consider before you make your selection:
Walking boots come in either a short format that stops a few inches above the ankle or a tall format that stops about an inch below the knee. Low-top styles are typically better for mild to moderate injuries that don’t need as much support, mostly indicated for metatarsal and digital fractures, postoperative foot surgery, and soft tissue trauma of the ankle and foot. Utilized for more severe injuries and providing more immobilization support than short boots, high-top styles are generally better for soft tissue injuries of the lower leg, stress fractures, acute ankle sprains, and stable foot and ankle fractures. Taller patients are often more comfortable and better supported by high-top medical boots, while shorter patients with severe injuries can often use the low-top medical boots to achieve comfortable and effective support.
Ranging from soft to rigid, walking boots come in a variety of different support levels to provide adjustable levels of immobilization for the recovering injury or medical condition. Rigid and semi-rigid designs provide the highest immobilizing support and are often used immediately following surgery or an injury when the movement needs to be more restrictive. As recovery progresses, the need for immobilization decreases and softer supports, can be employed that still restrict movement, but to a much lesser degree.
Frequently referred to as air casts or pneumatic boots, walking boots that use air bladders can be pumped to your desired level of compression to optimize comfort and stabilization during every phase of your recovery. Contouring around the leg, these air bladders help to reduce movement of the lower leg, ankle, and foot within the boot, while they also aid in the reduction of swelling and pain. In addition, this conveniently customizable air padding helps to accommodate enough room for edema and bandages to guard against skin irritation and blistering.
Although most walking boots are formulated with some kind of cushioning impact, one of the more innovative features available with some of these designs is anti-shock technology. Specially configured to decrease the risk of further injury, anti-vibration and anti-shock soles reduce the impact from each step, helping to mitigate the pain and fatigue often inherent with walking when you’re recovering from an injury or operation.
Most walking boots come with soft, breathable, and moisture-wicking liners to optimize comfort and hygiene. It’s a good idea to purchase extra liners if they’re available, so you always have a clean one to use every day. Walking boot liners are an important aspect to ensure patient compliance in wearing the boot for the best recovery outcomes, as well as helping to reduce chafing, irritation, itching, pressure sores, and other skin problems.
A walking boot helps to control the movement of the lower leg, ankle, and foot, supporting the user’s weight while walking. Often used post-injury and following surgery, walking boots help protect the affected area from further harm while they also promote quicker healing and reduce pain and swelling. They make standing and walking safer, allowing patients to get back to daily living activities as they recover from lower extremity trauma.
Depending on the severity of your injury or medical condition, you may be instructed by your physician to wear a walking boot for anywhere from one to eight weeks. Most medical conditions affecting the feet and ankles, such as plantar fasciitis and tendonitis, require one to two weeks of wearing a walking cast to correct, while sprains typically require two to four weeks. Fractures generally require the most time to heal, often requiring six to eight weeks or more of wearing a walking cast.
Walking boots are used in place of hard plaster casts to help heal and protect a wide range of mild, moderate, and severe injuries to the foot, ankle, and lower leg. Walking boots are often indicated for sprains, fractures (mostly stable), tendon/ligament tears, soft tissue and repetitive strain injuries, stress fractures, and a host of post-operative conditions, such as following Achilles tendonitis or bunion surgery. Walking boots assist in the reduction of pain, edema, and inflammation that’s often associated with injuries, along with medical conditions like neuroma, plantar fasciitis, metatarsalgia, sesamoiditis, tendonitis, and more.
While you should always follow your doctor’s advice, in most cases, walking boots can be removed while you sleep. They are mostly utilized as support and protection for walking, allowing you to continue daily activities as you recover from a surgery, injury, or acute medical condition. If you do remove the walking boot at night, be sure you put it back on before standing up and walking to use the bathroom, or in the morning before you get up.
Whether you should shower wearing your walking boot is contingent on your unique situation and the advice of your doctor. Most walking boots are not designed for that kind of contact with water. If you do need to wear a walking boot while showering or bathing, be sure you keep it covered and protected from the water, as it could adversely affect its support and durability and become unsafe.
Even though the use of walking boots can help the vast majority of patients to recover from injuries more quickly, there are some situations where these medical boots have been known to cause leg-length discrepancy and adverse gait alterations. Secondary site pain is also common when wearing walking boots, with some users reporting lower back and lower extremity discomfort, usually resulting from the discrepancy in height between the walking boot and the footwear used on the unaffected foot. Using a specially designed even-up shoe balancer for your other uninjured foot can help tremendously in the prevention of these issues.
Essential in the healing process for lower leg, ankle, and foot injuries, postoperative conditions, and acute medical conditions, walking boots help to limit movement so these injuries and conditions can heal more quickly and effectively. Available in a wide array of styles and sizes, a medical boot also helps to relieve pain, inflammation, and swelling, protecting the affected area against further harm.
Although any of the walking boots we chose for our top 5 would make the best match for a variety of users, we selected the Stabilizer - Standard Foot and Ankle Support as our #1 choice.
We invite you to learn more about how to choose the best walking cast boot in our Caregiver University article. You can also look through our comprehensive Braces & Splints catalog for more ideas on how to support yourself or a loved one to heal from an injury, medical condition, or surgery. Lastly, visit Caregiver University for more free informative articles!
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Megan has been a part of Rehabmart since its inception nearly 20 years ago. For the past several years she has been enjoying her role as HR Director while maintaining her Physical Therapy license. When she isn't working on her next in-service or working to find a new team member, she enjoys her five children, helping those who have PT type ailments, baking, practicing yoga, and working out.
