Some experience with patellar-tendon-bearing below-knee prostheses.

AN THE latter part of 1958, prothetists of the Limb and Brace Section of the U. S. Veterans Administration Prosthetics Center, New York City, were indoctrinated in the technique of fabricating the patellar-tendon-bearing (PTB) cuff-suspension below-knee prosthesis. Preliminary experience encouraged VAPC to institute in the spring of 1959 a form of clinical study. Selection of the patients fitted with the PTB prosthesis was not rigorous, potential wearers being recruited from among veteran beneficiaries having an approved request for a new or a spare below-knee prosthesis. Availability for follow-up examinations was an important consideration, and many patients otherwise acceptable were excluded because, as it turned out, they were unable, for one reason or another, to make themselves available for the several necessary one-hour followup visits to the VAPC clinic. Several patients sent to VAPC from other VA Regional Offices were included in the study even though the distance from residence to fitting facility posed problems. Although from the standpoint of fitting the study was concluded in November 1960, followups continued through September 1961. During the 21-month period, 53 adult, male, belowknee amputees were selected for participation. With a few exceptions, all had been wearing conventional below-knee prostheses—carved wood socket, side joints, and leather thigh corset, or lacer. Two had only recently undergone amputation, and their initial fittings were with the PTB prosthesis. Fifteen cases out of the 53 were selected for discussion in some detail in this summary. They represent the types of adult male amputees seen in Veterans Administration clinics throughout the country. In addition to those amputees who present no problems and who are therefore fitted successfully with a minimum of difficulty, there are included those who had been wearing a prosthesis with a thigh corset that furnished either partial or full ischial weight-bearing, those whose previous prostheses had sockets of varying types (i.e., soft, slip, suction, etc.), those who had worn a number of different types of prostheses over the years, and those who had worn the same prosthesis for 15 years. Included also are recent amputees who were to be fitted for the first time, as well as one typical bilateral below-knee amputee who benefited by use of PTB fitting concepts.