Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 3, 2026
Oscillation and Reaction Board Techniques for Estimating Inertial Properties of a Below-knee Prosthesis
Published on: May 8, 2014
Patient preference and gait efficiency in a geriatric population with transfemoral amputation using a free-swinging
Michael Devlin1, Lynne B Sinclair, Deborah Colman
1Division of Physiatry, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. mdevlin@westpark.org
Objective:
To investigate patient preference, walking speed, and prosthetic use in a geriatric population with transfemoral amputation using a free-swinging prosthetic knee or a locked knee joint.
Design:
Before-after trial.
Setting:
Ambulatory patients at an amputee rehabilitation facility.
Participants:
A convenience sample of 14 geriatric individuals with a unilateral dysvascular transfemoral amputation (age range, 61-80y), who were using a prosthesis with a free-swinging knee in the community, 3 months after discharge from an amputee rehabilitation program.
Intervention:
Change from a free-swinging knee to a locked knee.
Main Outcome Measures:
Patient preference, distance walked in 2 minutes, and prosthetic use as measured by the Houghton Scale.
Results:
Eleven of 14 participants preferred the locked knee. Irrespective of preference, the mean 2-minute walk distance was 44.9 +/- 28.9m with the free-swinging knee and 54.4 +/- 35m with the locked knee (P = .001). Prosthetic use was greater with the locked knee (7.8 +/- 2.2) than with the free-swinging knee (6.6 +/- 2.5) (P = .01).
Conclusions:
Most geriatric participants with transfemoral amputation preferred locked knees and walked faster and used their prostheses more when using a locked knee prosthesis.
