What is it about?
Traditionally, young children with lower limb loss are not provided with a working prosthetic knee right away. Instead, physicians wait until the child can stand and start walking on a prosthesis with no knee. We found that children who receive a working knee in their first prosthesis can use the knee just like their typically developing peers and develop walking more naturally.
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This research suggests that this “Early Knee” treatment should be considered a new standard of care for very young children with limb loss, replacing the traditional protocol.
Perspectives
This research has reminded me that too often, we underestimate the ability of kids to overcome challenges. Young children with limb loss were able to swing a prosthetic knee just like an anatomical knee at an age when conventional wisdom has said they would fall over. It has been a privilege to see this research begin to change what's taught in orthopedic texts about pediatric limb loss.
Mark Geil
Kennesaw State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Walking kinematics in young children with limb loss using early versus traditional prosthetic knee prescription protocols, PLoS ONE, April 2020, PLOS, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231401.
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