1 State Supervisor of Prosthetic Services, Ministry of Social Affairs, Helsinki, Finland. THE loss of a limb and its replacement by a prosthesis create conditions deviating from the normal. Walking is always more difficult. Loon (2) found that the energy consumption of amputees increases with the level of amputation. In the case of an above-knee amputation the effort of walking is greater than ...

AIM To asses the intermediate rehabilitation outcome of patients with war-related below-knee amputations and compare it with the patients with other causes of amputation. METHOD The study comprised 74 patients with below-knee stumps admitted for rehabilitation at the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Split University Hospital, Croatia, in 1994. They were fitted with a prelimi...

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is one of the most successful procedures in modern orthopedic surgery, providing high patient satisfaction rate. As a result, the number of patients undergoing TKA is increasing in number every year and more patients would be inclined to have the operation in near future . The demand for TKA is expected to grow 673% between 2005 and 2030. Knee surgeons are using mo...

OBJECTIVE To provide estimates of patient outcomes following tricompartmental knee replacement and to examine variation in outcomes due to patient and prosthesis characteristics. DATA SOURCES English-language articles identified through a computerized literature search and bibliography review. STUDY SELECTION Studies were included if they enrolled 10 or more patients at the time of initial ...

Compared to non-amputees, above knee amputees expend significantly more metabolic energy. This is a result of the passive nature of most knee prostheses, as the development of clinically successful powered knee prostheses has remained a challenge. The addition of powered elements, such as electric motors, allow prosthetic knees to more closely emulate natural knee biomechanics. However, the add...

BACKGROUND The clinical and radiological outcomes of revision total knee arthroplasty with a cemented posterior stabilized (PS), condylar constrained knee (CCK) or a fully constrained rotating hinge knee (RHK) prosthesis were evaluated. METHODS This study reviewed the clinical and radiological results of 36 revision total knee arthroplasties with a cemented PS, CCK, and RHK prosthesis in 8, 2...

Improving lower-limb prostheses is important to enhance the mobility of amputees. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an impedance-based control strategy (consisting of four novel algorithms) for an active knee and ankle prosthesis and test its generalizability across multiple walking speeds, walking surfaces, and users. The four algorithms increased ankle stiffness throughout stance, dec...

The optimal design of human lower limb prostheses, in particular of knee devices, is fundamental in order to restore the lost functionality and aesthetic aspect of the amputee’s locomotion. Among all knee devices, the four-bar linkage is still the most widespread mechanism, since, despite its simplicity, it allows the prosthesis to be sufficiently stable and, at the same time, to replicate the ...