To introduce their study, researchers noted that while bone-anchored prostheses reduce users’ oxygen consumption during walking, it was uncertain whether the same would be found in users of socket-suspended prostheses. The study, therefore, evaluated the relationship between oxygen consumption, center of mass (CoM), and trunk dynamics during walking between three groups: people satisfied with their transfemoral socket-suspended prostheses, people satisfied with their bone-anchored prostheses, and able-bodied people. They also examined whether CoM, trunk dynamics, and pistoning were potential determinants of oxygen consumption.
The results indicated that an assessment of CoM, trunk dynamics, and pistoning during walking could be useful when evaluating whether an individual socket-suspended prosthesis user could benefit from a bone-anchored prosthesis, in addition to the currently used tests, and potentially lead to more people benefitting from the bone-anchored technology.
Oxygen consumption was measured while the ten participants in each group walked on a treadmill at their preferred speed, 30 percent slower, and 30 percent faster. At each user’s preferred speed, CoM deviation, root-mean-square values of mediolateral CoM and trunk excursions, and pistoning were measured. In the prosthesis-user groups, the researchers also evaluated whether oxygen consumption, CoM, trunk dynamics, and pistoning were associated.
The researchers found that socket-suspended prostheses users demonstrated higher oxygen consumption, CoM, and trunk root-mean-square values of mediolateral CoM in comparison to the able-bodied group during walking. Bone-anchored prosthesis users showed intermediate results between socket-suspended prostheses users and able-bodied people, yet not significantly different from either group.
Greater CoM and trunk excursions were associated with higher oxygen consumption; in the socket-suspended prostheses users, a greater degree of pistoning, in turn, was found to associate with larger trunk root-mean-square values of mediolateral CoM.
The open-access study, “Oxygen consumption and gait dynamics in transfemoral bone-anchored prosthesis users compared to socket-prosthesis users: A cross-sectional study,” was published in Gait & Posture.
