A search for better limbs: prosthetics research at Northwestern University.

The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago established the first private Amputee Clinic in the Chicago area in 1954 . In 1958, with financing by the Veterans Administration, a prosthetics research facility was established in the physical facilities of the Rehabilitation Institute by the Department of Orthopaedics, Northwestern University Medical School. From its inception the activities of the Prosthetics Research Laboratory were clinically oriented and dedicated to improving the lot of the amputee, whether he had upper-limb or lower-limb loss . Because of interested clinicians' attendance at the Veterans Administration Regional Amputee Clinic, liaison between the problem veteran amputee and the Prosthetics Research Laboratory was early established. Early on, the laboratory directed its attention to the area of greatest complaints by amputees, namely the socket-limb interface, and some of the earliest work of the laboratory involved improving techniques for casting and socket fabrication. Suspension casting was one of the techniques which was developed and tested . Many other experimental techniques resulted in definitive procedures that have stood the test of time. Further attention to the same problem resulted in a considerable effort to provide flexible, fluid-filled sockets. It was early noted also that prosthetic joints required attention, particularly in the above-knee amputee who required not only stability in stance phase, but control of extension and flexion at the knee . The Northwestern variable-cadence knee was one of the early attempts at providing this type of knee function . Due to the large geriatric population of the Rehabilitation Amputee Clinic, a polycentric knee providing improved stance stability was also designed . Improved hip joint alignment control was possible with the Northwestern modification of the hip joint used in the Canadian hip-disarticulation and hemipelvectomy