External Mechanical Work in Runners With Unilateral Transfemoral Amputation

Hiroto Murata; Genki Hisano; Daisuke Ichimura; Hiroshi Takemura; Hiroaki Hobara

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.793651

External Mechanical Work in Runners With Unilateral Transfemoral Amputation

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Dec 27:9:793651. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.793651. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Hiroto Murata^{1

2}, Genki Hisano^{2

3

4}, Daisuke Ichimura², Hiroshi Takemura¹, Hiroaki Hobara²

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Chiba, Japan.
² Artificial Intelligence Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Systems and Control Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Carbon-fiber running-specific prostheses have enabled individuals with lower extremity amputation to run by providing a spring-like leg function in their affected limb. When individuals without amputation run at a constant speed on level ground, the net external mechanical work is zero at each step to maintain a symmetrical bouncing gait. Although the spring-like "bouncing step" using running-specific prostheses is considered a prerequisite for running, little is known about the underlying mechanisms for unilateral transfemoral amputees. The aim of this study was to investigate external mechanical work at different running speeds for unilateral transfemoral amputees wearing running-specific prostheses. Eight unilateral transfemoral amputees ran on a force-instrumented treadmill at a range of speeds (30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80% of the average speed of their 100-m personal records). We calculated the mechanical energy of the body center of mass (COM) by conducting a time-integration of the ground reaction forces in the sagittal plane. Then, the net external mechanical work was calculated as the difference between the mechanical energy at the initial and end of the stance phase. We found that the net external work in the affected limb tended to be greater than that in the unaffected limb across the six running speeds. Moreover, the net external work of the affected limb was found to be positive, while that of the unaffected limb was negative across the range of speeds. These results suggest that the COM of unilateral transfemoral amputees would be accelerated in the affected limb's step and decelerated in the unaffected limb's step at each bouncing step across different constant speeds. Therefore, unilateral transfemoral amputees with passive prostheses maintain their bouncing steps using a limb-specific strategy during running.

Keywords: amputee locomotion; bouncing gait; external mechanical work; ground reaction forces; running-specific prosthesis.