Adoption of newly available materials and knowledge, through trial and error experiment, sometimes can result in an increase of productivity as well as improvement of quality. This is often true in industry in general, and can also be true in the prosthetic field . This paper describes a fabrication system combining many widely used techniques (2,4,5,6) and accepted principles (3) and a few new...

Stump length is an important factor in attaining successful prosthetic rehabilitation in below-knee (BK) amputees. Stability of the stump-prosthesis complex is impaired in the case of a stump shorter than 10 cm. Thus, fitting a prosthesis to a BK amputee with a stump which is very short often requires the use of different prosthetic techniques. In this work, the authors suggest the use of a Swe...

The most critical factor in rehabilitation of the geriatric lowerextremity amputee on a prosthesis is preservation of the knee joint. Several reported series have established that most amputations below the knee will heal despite extensive vascular occlusive disease [I-41. Satisfactory healing appears to be a direct result of attention to atraumatic surgical detail, especially in the careful ma...

A total of 175 consecutive below and above-knee amputees sent to the prosthetic workshop in Helsinki for prosthetic fitting from 32 hospitals were reviewed to determine their functional ambulation and social adaptation. The average age of the patients was 62.2 years at the time of the prosthetic fitting. The mortality was 11% (19) during the first postoperative year. One-year postoperative info...

The positioning of the patient on the fracture table is critical for the successful reduction and operative fixation of intertrochanteric hip fractures. However, this manipulation is challenging with patients who have undergone amputations of their legs. A 97-year-old man presented to the emergency department with symptom of right hip pain following a mechanical fall. He had a below-knee amputa...

During the period 1984-1985 amputation of the lower limb at a level potentially requiring a prosthesis was performed on 577 patients in 16 operative units. The mean age was 75.7 years for females and 68.1 for males. The most common site of the amputation was above the knee (49.9%). The majority of amputations (93.8%) were performed for vascular diseases and diabetes. Survival figures showed tha...

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 fitte...