Article

A person with amputation's subjective perception is the only tool available to
describe fit and comfort to a prosthetist. However, few studies have investigated
the effect of alignment on this perception. The aim of this article is to
determine whether people with amputation could perceive the alignment
perturbations of their prostheses and effectively communicate them. A randomized
controlled perturbation of angular (3 and 6 degrees) and translational (5 and 10
mm) alignments in the sagittal (flexion, extension, and anterior and posterior
translations) and coronal (abduction, adduction, and medial and lateral
translations) planes were induced from an aligned condition in 11 subjects with
transtibial prostheses. The perception was evaluated when standing (static) and
immediately after walking (dynamic) using software that used a visual analog
scale under each alignment condition. In the coronal plane, Friedman test
demonstrated general statistical differences in static (p < 0.001) and dynamic (p
< 0.001) measures of perceptions with angular perturbations. In the sagittal
plane, it also demonstrated general statistical differences in late-stance
dynamic measures of perceptions (p < 0.001) with angular perturbations, as well
as in early-stance dynamic measures of perceptions (p < 0.05) with translational
perturbations. Fisher exact test suggested that people with amputation's
perceptions were good indicators for coronal angle malalignments but less
reliable when defining other alignment conditions.

Langue : ANGLAIS