Article

Amputees are known to walk with greater metabolic cost than able-bodied
individuals and establishing predictors of metabolic cost from kinematic
measures, such as centre of mass (CoM) motion, during walking are important from
a rehabilitative perspective, as they can provide quantifiable measures to target
during gait rehabilitation in amputees. While it is known that vertical CoM
motion poorly predicts metabolic cost, CoM motion in the medial-lateral (ML) and
anterior-posterior directions have not been investigated in the context of gait
efficiency in the amputee population. Therefore, the aims of this study were to
investigate the relationship between CoM motion in all three directions of
motion, base of support and walking speed, and the metabolic cost of walking in
both able-bodied individuals and different levels of lower limb amputee. 37
individuals were recruited to form groups of controls, unilateral above- and
below-knee, and bilateral above-knee amputees respectively. Full-body optical
motion and oxygen consumption data were collected during walking at a
self-selected speed. CoM position was taken as the mass-weighted average of all
body segments and compared to each individual's net non-dimensional metabolic
cost. Base of support and ML CoM displacement were the strongest correlates to
metabolic cost and the positive correlations suggest increased ML CoM
displacement or Base of support will reduce walking efficiency. Rehabilitation
protocols which indirectly reduce these indicators, rather than vertical CoM
displacement will likely show improvements in amputee walking efficiency.
CI - Copyright A(c) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS