Total surface bearing below-knee prosthesis: advantages, disadvantages, and clinical implications.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the total surface bearing (TSB) prosthesis for below-knee amputee patients and to determine its clinical indications.


METHODS
Case series.


METHODS
University hospital and the Welfare Center for the Disabled.


METHODS
Thirty-two subjects who could walk with the TSB prosthesis and had already used the patellar-tendon bearing (or Kondylen-Bettung Münster) socket.


METHODS
Subjective assessment of the TSB socket, consisting of an overall rating and ratings of 13 individual items, was performed, and results were analyzed with Fisher's exact test.


RESULTS
Seventy-five percent of the subjects were satisfied overall with the TSB socket. Of the 13 items, comfort, ease to swing, pain, piston movement, tightness, skin irritation, appearance, and durability were regarded as good by more than 75% of the patients. Donning, perspiration, odor, and staining were regarded as poor by more than 20%. Items that were significantly related with overall satisfaction with the TSB socket were comfort, ease to swing, and piston movement, while donning was significantly related to dissatisfaction.


CONCLUSIONS
The TSB socket is suitable for and preferred by many amputee subjects, but some problems remain to be solved.
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.
K
K
Hachisuka
K
K
Dozono
H
H
Ogata
S
S
Ohmine
H
H
Shitama
K
K
Shinkoda
D000328:Adult; D000672:Amputation Stumps / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000293:injuries; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology*