Gait Measures and Dynamic Weight bearing in Young and Elder Trans-tibal Amputee using PTB Prosthesis with SACH foot

Objective: to investigate the changes associated with age in gait characteristics and dynamic weight bearing pattern of sound and prosthetic limb of persons with unilateral amputation. Participant: two groups of seven young (24±3.8 years) and seven elderly unilateral amputee (71±6 years) were selected for this study. Setting: both groups walked at their self selected speed over a 20 second duration plane surface walk way in trans-tibial prosthesis with PTB socket and SACH foot. The raw data of force and EMG sensors of gait analyzer were filtered, processed and analyzed with help of ‘matlab 7.0. A blue tooth enabled heart rate telemetry system was used for calculating gait efficiency in terms of physiological cost index (PCI). Results: significant differences were found in stride duration, (p=0.003), step duration sound limb (p<0.002), stance duration sound limb (p=0.002), stance duration prosthetic limb (p=0.006) and cadence (p=0.001<0.05), however no difference was found in EMG pattern of vastus lateralis between the two groups. The dynamic weight distribution showed more normalized load on anterior parts of heel and minimum load at calcaneal max in elderly group. The results of vertical ground reaction force found the prosthetic side of elderly group takes more weight than young group during loading response. In comparison, PCI was observed to be greater in case of elderly group. Conclusion: most of difference between two groups could be explained by speed variations and biomechanical limitation of ankle joint due to natural aging process.