Title: Computational analysis of gait patterns in transfemoral amputees: polycentric and weight-activated knee joints

Authors: Sushree Sangita Nayak; Aswini Kumar Mohapatra; Srikanta Maharana; Biswaranjan Mishra; Bijay Kishor Shishir Sekhar Pattanaik; Bijay Kumar Paikaray

Addresses: Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics, SVNIRTAR, Odisha, 754010, India ' CIPET, Institute of Petrochemicals Technology (IPT), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751024, India ' Department of Prosthetics and Orthotics, SVNIRTAR, Odisha, 754010, India ' Department of CSE, GIET University, Odisha, 765022, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Gandhi Institute of Technological Advancement (GITA) Autonomous College, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 752054, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Centre for Data Science, Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (Deemed to be) University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751030, India

Abstract: In this article, we fitted polycentric or weight-activated knee joints to ten young, active amputees with transfemoral amputations. We compared the gait patterns of the amputees with those of 10 individuals using a polycentric or weight-activated knee. We compared the performance of participants with each knee type using a paired t-test. The results showed that a polycentric knee performed better than a weight-activated knee. The polycentric knee creates a balance between stability and mobility. The participants with a polycentric knee had a walking speed of 80.74 metres per minute, compared to 68.50 metres per minute with a weight-activated knee (P < 0.05). The symmetry of walking with the polycentric gait was greater than that of the participants with the weight-activated knee, based on the values of gait parameters in time-space. This research will help determine how the asymmetric gait of transfemoral amputees affects their prosthetic knee joints and open the door to better prosthetic components.

Keywords: asymmetry; gait kinematic; polycentric knee joints; weight activated knee joint; transfemoral amputee.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCBDD.2024.142282

International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design, 2024 Vol.16 No.2, pp.147 - 166

Received: 01 Feb 2024
Accepted: 23 Aug 2024
Published online: 16 Oct 2024 *

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