Assessing preparative gait adaptations in persons with transtibial amputation in response to repeated medial-lateral perturbations

- Amputees are highly susceptible to fall related injury while ambulating.
- Fall prevention and balance therapy regimens are needed.
- We examine a method to cause medial lateral instability during gait.
- Only a slight postural adjustment was made following multiple perturbations.
- This method could be used to determine efficacy of balance therapy programs.

Preventing loss of balance in individuals with transtibial amputation is important, as they are susceptible to a high frequency of fall related injuries. In order to validate fall prevention and balance therapies, methods to assess gait stability must be developed. Kinematic, temporal-spatial, and center of mass data from six healthy young participants with transtibial amputation were collected during treadmill walking during exposure to 10 randomly ordered discrete medial-lateral perturbations. The 20 strides prior to each perturbation were assessed for anticipatory changes. The only consistent postural adjustment made as a result of the perturbations was a significantly lowered center of mass height (p = 0.016).