After scaling to body size hip strength of the residual limb exceeds that of the intact limb among unilateral lower limb prosthesis users.
Andrew Sawers, Stefania Fatone
PMID 37098570WHAT IT FOUND
When hip strength is adjusted for body size, prosthesis users have weaker hips on their intact side than on their prosthetic side.
The prosthetic side matches healthy controls. Strengthening should target the intact limb.
Key findings
01Residual limb hip strength was significantly greater than intact limb strength and equivalent to controls.
02The intact limb was the weakest of the three legs across all four hip muscle groups.
03These differences were only visible after normalizing torque to body mass and thigh length.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study measured strength only at a single joint angle using isometric contractions, so it does not show how these muscles perform during dynamic movement. The sample size was small (28 users), and the results depend heavily on the specific mathematical method used to normalize strength to body size. It is unknown whether the measured isometric strength translates to functional walking ability or balance performance.
Declared interests
Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the prosthetic limb is stronger than a healthy person's limb. While the prosthetic-side hip matched controls in three of four muscle groups, the intact limb was significantly weaker than controls. The finding is that the intact limb is the deficit, not that the prosthetic limb is superhuman.