Comparative study of a femoral amputated limb with and without implant.

AbstractThe contact pressure at the socket–residual limb interface is the most critical parameter for evaluating the comfort of a leg prosthesis. Experimental studies have analyzed this parameter for typical postures and during walking on a flat surface of an amputee; however, experimental tests require a real socket prototype equipped with transducers. To optimize socket design, this work presents a virtual approach based on a digital avatar of a patient wearing a lower limb prosthesis. Our study integrates two different types of simulations: the first concerns the femur with an implant, the second without an implant, and includes the evaluation of pressure at the socket–residual limb interface using finite element analyses (FEA). The objective of this study is to understand the distribution of loads and stresses at the interface between the residual limb and the prosthesis. The lower contact pressure is represented by CPRESS, while CSHEAR1 is the frictional shear stress component in the first local tangent direction, and CSHEAR2 is the frictional shear stress component in the second local tangent direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]