Hip joint and muscle loading for persons with bilateral transfemoral/through-knee amputations: biomechanical differences between full-length articulated and foreshortened non-articulated prostheses.
Diana Toderita, Clement D Favier, David P Henson and 4 others
PMID 38115144WHAT IT FOUND
Full-length prostheses allow faster walking but increase hip joint forces and muscle effort.
Short stubby prostheses reduce peak hip loads but require more strides per distance. Neither design is clearly safer for long-term joint health in this small group.
Key findings
01Walking with full-length articulated prostheses resulted in a second peak hip joint contact force 3.8 body weights higher than with stubbies.
02Stubby prostheses produced hip contact force impulses normalized to distance walked that were 61.6 body weight-seconds per meter higher than able-bodied controls.
03Hip flexor muscle force impulses were larger with full-length prostheses, but these differences disappeared when normalized to the distance walked.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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
Very small sample size (4 amputees) with no statistical hypothesis testing, limiting generalizability. Musculoskeletal modeling assumptions may not capture all physiological responses, such as muscle co-contraction. Participants were highly functional (K3 level or higher) and male, so results may not apply to less active individuals or females. Time gap between MRI scans and gait testing could affect muscle volume accuracy in the model.
Declared interests
Funded by the Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these biomechanical differences as clinical outcomes. The study measured estimated forces in a computer model, not actual pain or osteoarthritis development, and the sample was too small to prove which prosthesis is better for joint health long-term.