Researchers conducted a randomized crossover trial to evaluate the impact of socket design on the user’s comfort and mobility and concluded that the subischial suction socket improved comfort in daily life without negatively impacting user mobility when compared to an ischial containment socket.
Twenty-five participants with transfemoral amputations who used ischial containment or subischial sockets were recruited from ten rehabilitation centers in France, fitted for subischial sockets by certified prosthetists, and randomly assigned to start with one or the other socket. After a minimum of two weeks, each participant evaluated the Socket Comfort Score (SCS) in various situations, performed the Two-Minute Walk Test, and answered the Prosthetic Limb Users Survey of Mobility (PLUS-M) questionnaire.
SCS scores were improved with the subischial socket compared with the ischial containment socket in all situations, according to the study results; the differences in self-reported mobility and walking distance at the Two-Minute Walk Test were not significant. At the end of the study, more than 80 percent of the participants chose to keep the subischial socket for their daily use.
The open-access study, “Subischial vs. ischial containment sockets: A multicenter randomized crossover trial to assess comfort and mobility in daily life situations,” was published in Prosthesis.
