Jarrell Joshua R, Farrell Brad J, Kistenberg Robert S, Dalton John F, Pitkin Mark, Prilutsky Boris I
School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Department of Physical Therapy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
J Biomech. 2018 Jul 25;76:74-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2018.05.021. Epub 2018 May 23.
Ongoing animal preclinical studies on transcutaneous bone-anchored prostheses have aimed to improve biomechanics of prosthetic locomotion in people with limb loss. It is much less common to translate successful developments in human biomechanics and prosthetic research to veterinary medicine to treat animals with limb loss. Current standard of care in veterinary medicine is amputation of the whole limb if a distal segment cannot be salvaged. Bone-anchored transcutaneous prostheses, developed for people with limb loss, could be beneficial for veterinary practice. The aim of this study was to examined if and how cats utilize the limb with a bone-anchored passive transtibial prosthesis during level and slope walking. Four cats were implanted with a porous titanium implant into the right distal tibia. Ground reaction forces and full-body kinematics were recorded during level and slope (±50%) walking before and 4-6 months after implantation and prosthesis attachment. The duty factor of the prosthetic limb exceeded zero in all cats and slope conditions (p < 0.05) and was in the range of 45.0-60.6%. Thus, cats utilized the prosthetic leg for locomotion instead of walking on three legs. Ground reaction forces, power and work of the prosthetic limb were reduced compared to intact locomotion, whereas those of the contralateral hind- and forelimbs increased (p < 0.05). This asymmetry was likely caused by insufficient energy generation for propulsion by the prosthetic leg, as no signs of pain or discomfort were observed in the animals. We concluded that cats could utilize a unilateral bone-anchored transtibial prosthesis for quadrupedal level and slope locomotion.
正在进行的关于经皮骨锚定假肢的动物临床前研究旨在改善肢体缺失患者假肢运动的生物力学。将人体生物力学和假肢研究中的成功进展转化到兽医学中以治疗肢体缺失的动物则要少见得多。兽医学当前的护理标准是，如果肢体远端部分无法挽救，则进行全肢截肢。为肢体缺失患者开发的骨锚定经皮假肢可能对兽医实践有益。本研究的目的是检验猫在平地和斜坡行走时是否以及如何使用带有骨锚定被动经胫骨假肢的肢体。四只猫在右胫骨远端植入了多孔钛植入物。在植入和安装假肢前以及植入后4 - 6个月，记录了猫在平地和斜坡（±50%）行走时的地面反作用力和全身运动学数据。在所有猫和斜坡条件下，假肢肢体的负荷因子均超过零（p < 0.05），范围在45.0 - 60.6%之间。因此，猫利用假肢腿进行运动，而不是三条腿行走。与正常运动相比，假肢肢体的地面反作用力、功率和功降低，而对侧后肢和前肢的地面反作用力、功率和功增加（p < 0.05）。这种不对称可能是由于假肢腿产生推进力的能量不足所致，因为在动物身上未观察到疼痛或不适的迹象。我们得出结论，猫可以使用单侧骨锚定经胫骨假肢进行四足平地和斜坡运动。
