Performance of BK Amputees Using PTB Prostheses

Abstract

A below-knee amputee is generally known to achieve a close-to-normal performance level, with the patellar-tendon-bearing method of stump fitting. This was confirmed by an ergonomic investigation on ten below-knee amputees, fitted with PTB prostheses. The test group subjects were given two static tests, two dynamic tests and one exercise tolerance test, during which their oxygen consumptions, pulmonary ventilations, energy expenditures and peak heart rates were measured. The performance of the test subjects were compared with that of a control group consisting of sixteen normal, healthy, individuals. The percentage increases in the values of the biomechanical parameters of the test subjects, over those of the control group, were found to be justified and thus natural to the below-knee amputee-PTB prosthesis system. The ergonomic study has not yielded information regarding the biomechanical efficacy of the PTB prosthesis, but it has also shown that the amputees fitted with such prostheses can take up, without any undue extra effort and metabolic cost, industrial occupations of the moderately heavy kind.