Original Research Article
Year: 2023 | Month: May | Volume: 13 | Issue: 5 | Pages: 128-142
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20230515
Comparative Study between Indigenously Developed Multi-Axis Prosthetic Foot and SACH Foot in Terms of Gait Parameters and Energy Expenditure in the Patients with Unilateral Transtibial Amputation
Devidas R. Thakre1, Manoj Kumar Tiwari2, Deepak P. Prabhu3
1,2,3Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics, All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mumbai, India
Corresponding Author: Manoj Kumar Tiwari
ABSTRACT
Background: There are a large number of commercially available, prosthetic feet. Properly selecting prosthetic foot-ankle components with appropriate design characteristics is critical for successful amputee rehabilitation. However, currently developed prosthetic foot designs are high performance, dynamic response, energy restoring, and multi-axial motion properties. These are all made from carbon composite material, with superior strength and weight ratio. In fitting an artificial limb, the goal of the prosthetist is to restore the ability of the amputee to perform everyday activities in an easy, natural, and comfortable manner, all prosthetic foot attempt to return some of the lost gait function. But for the average individual in a developing country like India, amputees cannot afford such types of feet, which are more expensive. There is a need for a new prosthetic foot in economically developing countries that is technically simple yet functionally more equivalent to a dynamic response foot. The new design of a multi-axial prosthetic foot has been developed in this study, mechanically tested with 5000 cycles, and its effectiveness is compared with a time-tested SACH foot. The multi-axial prosthetic foot is the most effective and significant prosthetic foot design. The anatomical foot has multi-axial motion property, which is cautiously accommodated in this design characteristics deemed necessary by patients in achieving natural gait motion, including dorsiflexion, plantarflexion, inversion, and eversion mimics biomechanical characteristics of the prosthetic foot.
Study Design: Experimental interventional prospective study
Objective: To design and develop a multi-axis prosthetic foot that allows the same triplanar motion as a normal human ankle and foot and compare its effectiveness with the SACH foot in terms of gait parameters and energy expenditure by calculating the Physiological Cost Index.
Methods: 30 participants with unilateral transtibial amputation were recruited randomly and evaluated with SACH foot and multi-axial foot. The primary outcomes were gait parameters and energy expenditure.
Results: The multi-axial prosthetic foot has to be found to be more efficient than the SACH foot; at the p<0.05, there was a significant difference in the patient’s gait parameters and energy expenditure.
Conclusion: Multi-axial prosthetic foot improved patient’s gait as they covered more distance than SACH foot while walking on level ground. A newly designed multi-axis prosthetic foot mimics the normal human anatomical ankle. It helps to increase step length, stride length, cadence, and speed; hence subjects walk more efficiently with less energy consumption.
Key words: amputee, dorsiflexion, eversion, foot, gait, inversion, multi-axial, parameters, plantarflexion, SACH, physiological cost index