In most developing countries, the physically handicapped often have rehabilitation setbacks such as unavailability of modern rehabilitative aids which may result in non-achievement of the desired goals in activities of daily living. Children with poliomyelitis, hemiplegics, amputees and paraplegics top the list of patients requiring rehabilitation at University College Hospital, Ibadan. The amp...

Walking speed, stance duration and ground reaction forces were studied with the use of a stable force platform (Kistler) in 24 male transtibial amputees and 12 healthy subjects matched for sex and age. The aim of the study was to compare the gait performance of two groups with unilateral trans-tibial amputations for either vascular disease or trauma and also to compare the results of the two gr...

1 Professor of Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles; member, Advisory Committee on Artificial Limbs, National Research Council, and of the Technical Committee on Prosthetics, ACAL, NRC. In the rehabilitation of the upper-extremity amputee, structural replacement by prosthetic arm and hand is an obvious requirement, and it poses a comparatively easy task; functional replacement by ...

The purpose of this research was to evaluate a newly developed system for assessing and providing feedback of gait symmetry information in real time to subjects walking on a motorised treadmill (the CCF Treadmill). The advantages of the system are that it allows the rapid collection and comparison of temporal and kinetic parameters of gait for multiple successive strides, at a constant known sp...

In an effort to improve amputee gait, energy storage and return (ESAR) prosthetic feet have been developed to provide enhanced function by storing and returning mechanical energy through elastic structures. However, the effect of ESAR feet on muscle activity in amputee walking is not well understood. Previous studies have analyzed commercial prosthetic feet with a wide range of material propert...

A successful above knee amputation. The patient was walking on crutches within 10 days of operation. He had run eight miles a day until acute thrombosis of a popliteal aneurysm produced irreversible ischaemia. Most lower limb amputations are now done because of vascular insufficiency. In 1987, 4985 new lower limb amputees were referred to the disablement service centres (previously known as art...