Investigation on the usability of advanced prosthetic knees in daily activities for individuals with lower limb amputation

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H07455
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities
• Principal Investigator: Okita Yusuke 国立障害者リハビリテーションセンター(研究所), 研究所 義肢装具技術研究部, 流動研究員 (00784357)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: リハビリテーション / 大腿義足 / 膝継手 / イールディング / 三次元動作解析 / 高機能膝継手

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated how individuals with unilateral transfemoral amputation (TFA) can perform step-over-step stair descent and ramp descent using a stance-yielding prosthetic knee that helps the prosthetic knee flex gradually during weight bearing. The results indicated that, during step-over-step stair descent, those with TFA put the posterior 1/3 of their prosthetic foot on the tread to descend the stairs faster than step-to-step one. We should keep in mind that the contralateral limb is subject to excessive loading in turn. For ramp descent, we observed that individuals with TFA could make the most of the functionality of stance-yielding knees by making a smaller step and walking slowly. These findings would be helpful for teaching these locomotive activities for those with TFA and evaluating the performance during rehabilitation process.

Free Research Field

理学療法学