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).