Biomechanical outcomes of through-knee amputation

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Biomechanical outcomes of through-knee amputation for implications in surgical decision-making, prosthetic socket design and long-term health

• IRAS ID

  279581

• Contact name

  Alison McGregor

• Contact email

  a.mcgregor@imperial.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Imperial College London

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 6 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Summary of Research
  There has been an increase in health complications due to the rise in cardiovascular diseases and cancer cases in the world. This can lead to amputations of the major limbs and mainly in lower limbs. Amputations can also come from traumatic injuries such as car accidents. Lower limb amputations can be a solution to alleviate pain and help the patient regain mobility and independence. Although below the knee amputation is the preferred amputation level, when it fails or the patients' conditions can not allow a below-knee amputation, a transfemoral amputation is usually preferred. However, amputation through the knee can be an alternative to transfemoral amputation and has been shown to lead to better outcomes and more mobility and ambulation once fitted with a prosthesis than transfemoral amputation. Even though, through-knee amputation remains underperformed when below the knee amputation fails or is not feasible.
  In this study, we seek to investigate the link between through-knee amputation and biomechanical outcomes compared to transfemoral amputees.
  We will recruit people with a through knee amputation, unilaterally or bilaterally and people with a transfemoral amputation, unilaterally or bilaterally as well as controls. We will use a laboratory-based motion tracking system to assess participants’ function while they perform activities of daily living. These will include walking, going up and down steps and getting off a chair in the laboratory. We will carry out one assessment with participants.

  Summary of Results
  We compared the way people with a through-knee amputation (TKA) walk to people with an above-the-knee amputation (AKA) and people without amputation. We observed that people with a TKA had fewer differences from people without amputation in how they walked than people with AKA did. People with TKA had more movement at the hip than people with AKA. There were also no differences in the way the hip, knee and ankle joints on the non-amputated side are loaded when they walk which is known to be an issue in people with AKA potentially leading to pain or injury

• REC name

  North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  20/NW/0416

• Date of REC Opinion

  26 Nov 2020

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion