Gait Coordination and Stability of Individuals Living with Transtibial Limb Loss

The short-term goal of the study is to understand the coordination and stability deficits in Veterans and Service Members (SM) with transtibial amputation (TTA). The overall aim is to determine if these critical factors can be improved with specific prosthetic devices or device types. If improvements are observed, the long-term goal is to advocate for the prescription of specific prosthetic devices for Veterans and SMs with TTA and examine the effects of intensive, device-specific therapy to optimize these parameters. Preliminary data analysis indicates that Veterans and SMs with TTA experience stability deficits compared to individuals without lower limb loss while using all three prosthetic devices included in this study (Energy Storing and Returning (ESR), Articulating ESR, and Powered ESR). Both the Powered ESR and ESR devices differ from the Control group in stability level. However, the ESR device indicates poor coordination values compared to the Powered ESR device. These findings may differ with the addition of the remaining participant data.