title: Evaluation of a Powered Ankle-Foot Prosthesis during Slope Ascent Gait.
abstract: Passive prosthetic feet lack active plantarflexion and push-off power resulting in gait deviations and compensations by individuals with transtibial amputation (TTA) during slope ascent. We sought to determine the effect of active ankle plantarflexion and push-off power provided by a powered prosthetic ankle-foot (PWR) on lower extremity compensations in individuals with unilateral TTA as they walked up a slope. We hypothesized that increased ankle plantarflexion and push-off power would reduce compensations commonly observed with a passive, energy-storing-returning prosthetic ankle-foot (ESR). We compared the temporal spatial, kinematic, and kinetic measures of ten individuals with TTA (age: 30.2 ± 5.3 yrs) to matched abled-bodied (AB) individuals during 5° slope ascent. The TTA group walked with an ESR and separately with a PWR. The PWR produced significantly greater prosthetic ankle plantarflexion and push-off power generation compared to an ESR and more closely matched AB values. The PWR functioned similar to a passive ESR device when transitioning onto the prosthetic limb due to limited prosthetic dorsiflexion, which resulted in similar deviations and compensations. In contrast, when transitioning off the prosthetic limb, increased ankle plantarflexion and push-off power provided by the PWR contributed to decreased intact limb knee extensor power production, lessening demand on the intact limb knee.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Intrepid, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States of America.|The Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4484-0613
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Rábago
authors.affiliation: Center for the Intrepid, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States of America.|The Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aldridge Whitehead
authors.affiliation: Center for the Intrepid, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States of America.|The Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jason M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wilken
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000674:Amputees; D000842:Ankle / Q000502:physiology*; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology*; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult