Investigation of Joint Contact Forces of Below Knee Amputees in Intact Side while Walking with Energy Storage Feet

Background: Individuals with a lower limb amputation show a greater prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) on the intact side, which may be due to increased loads on the sounds side while walking due to functional constrains of the prosthetic limb. Pro-Flex foot is one of the prosthetic feet designed to decrease the loads applied on the legs of amputees, especially on the contralateral side. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the loads of the intact limb of below knee (BK) amputees walking with Pro-Flex compared to Vari-Flex.Methods: 7 subjects with BK amputation were recruited in this study. The subjects were asked to walk with Vari-Flex and Pro-Flex feet on a level surface. Prior to measurements, Subjects had at least XXX Time to adapt to the different conditions. The motions of the joints and the ground reaction forces applied on the legs were obtained by Vicon Motion analysis system and Kistler force plate. The difference between ground reaction force (GRF), joint contact force (JCF) and moments while walking with Pro-Flex and Vari-Flex was determined by Paired t test with significant point set at 0.05. The order of the two conditions was randomized.Results: There was no significant difference between spatiotemporal gait parameters of Vari-Flex and Pro-Flex feet (p-value> 0.05), however the peaks of some components of GRF decreased significantly using Pro-Flex. Walking with Pro-flex decreased the peaks of JCF, compared to Vari-Flex.Conclusion: It seems that the loads applied on intact limb of BK amputees decreased significantly while walking with Pro-Flex. Therefore, it can be concluded that BK amputees may have a lower risk of knee and hip joints osteoarthritis if they walk with Pro-flex.

کلیدواژه ها:

below knee amputee ، Loads ، ground reaction force ، moment ، joint contact force