The biomechanical and met-toe-bolic effects of walking on a passive prosthetic foot with an added toe joint

The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals with transtibial amputation walk with vs. without a toe joint in their prosthetic foot, as well as to quantify how toe joint stiffness affects gait biomechanics and metabolic cost. We created a custom foot prosthesis that enables us to systematically vary toe joint stiffness from low to infinite (locked joint), then tested individuals walking on level ground, slopes, stairs and uneven terrain while we collected ground reaction forces, kinematics and also oxygen consumption for level ground. Here we present preliminary results from the first subject, who underwent a 4-day training and testing protocol. Data collection on additional subjects is currently underway, and we plan to present these more extensive, multi-subject biomechanics results at the conference.