Chénier Félix, Aissaoui Rachid
Laboratoire de Recherche en Imagerie et Orthopédie (LIO), Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), Montréal, Canada ; Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation de Montréal, Institut de Réadaptation Gingras-Lindsay, Montréal, Canada.
Laboratoire de Recherche en Imagerie et Orthopédie (LIO), Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), Montréal, Canada ; Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation de Montréal, Institut de Réadaptation Gingras-Lindsay, Montréal, Canada ; Département de Génie de la Production Automatisée, École de Technologie Supérieure, Montréal, Canada.
Biomed Res Int. 2014;2014:609369. doi: 10.1155/2014/609369. Epub 2014 Sep 3.
Wheelchair propulsion exposes the user to a high risk of shoulder injury and to whole-body vibration that exceeds recommendations of ISO 2631-1:1997. Reducing the mechanical work required to travel a given distance (WN-WPM, weight-normalized work-per-meter) can help reduce the risk of shoulder injury, while reducing the vibration transmissibility (VT) of the wheelchair frame can reduce whole-body vibration. New materials such as titanium and carbon are used in today's wheelchairs and are advertised to improve both parameters, but current knowledge on this matter is limited. In this study, WN-WPM and VT were measured simultaneously and compared between six folding wheelchairs (1 titanium, 1 carbon, and 4 aluminium). Ten able-bodied users propelled the six wheelchairs on three ground surfaces. Although no significant difference of WN-WPM was found between wheelchairs (P < 0.1), significant differences of VT were found (P < 0.05). The carbon wheelchair had the lowest VT. Contrarily to current belief, the titanium wheelchair VT was similar to aluminium wheelchairs. A negative correlation between VT and WN-WPM was found, which means that reducing VT may be at the expense of increasing WN-WPM. Based on our results, use of carbon in wheelchair construction seems promising to reduce VT without increasing WN-WPM.
轮椅推进使使用者面临肩部受伤的高风险以及超过ISO 2631-1:1997建议值的全身振动。减少行驶给定距离所需的机械功（WN-WPM，重量归一化每米功）有助于降低肩部受伤风险，而降低轮椅车架的振动传递率（VT）可减少全身振动。如今的轮椅使用了钛和碳等新材料，并宣称这些材料能改善这两个参数，但目前关于此事的知识有限。在本研究中，同时测量了六款折叠轮椅（1款钛合金、1款碳纤维和4款铝合金）的WN-WPM和VT，并进行了比较。十名身体健全的使用者在三种地面上推动这六款轮椅。虽然轮椅之间未发现WN-WPM有显著差异（P < 0.1），但发现VT有显著差异（P < 0.05）。碳纤维轮椅的VT最低。与当前认知相反，钛合金轮椅的VT与铝合金轮椅相似。发现VT与WN-WPM之间存在负相关，这意味着降低VT可能是以增加WN-WPM为代价。基于我们的研究结果，在轮椅制造中使用碳纤维似乎有望在不增加WN-WPM的情况下降低VT。
