Individual muscle contributions to hip joint-contact forces during walking in unilateral transfemoral amputees with osseointegrated prostheses

Abstract

Direct skeletal attachment of prostheses in transfemoral amputees circumvents skin-interface complications associated with conventional sockets; however, joint pain and musculoskeletal disease is known to occur postoperatively. This study quantified hip contact forces and the roles of individual muscles in producing hip contact forces during walking in transfemoral amputees with osseointegrated prostheses. Musculoskeletal models were developed for four transfemoral amputees. Gluteus maximus and gluteus medius were the major contributors to the hip contact forces, and the intact limb hip muscles demonstrated greater contributions to hip contact forces than those of the residual limb. The findings may be useful for mitigating walking asymmetry.

Keywords:

• Musculoskeletal modeling
• hip contact forces
• osseointegration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained by the Melbourne Health Human Research Ethics Committee with the number HREC 2015.148.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Melbourne International Research Scholarship, and the Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship.