The incidence of osteoarthritis for lower limb amputees, especially unilateral transfemoral amputees, was higher than that
of transtibial amputees. Considering level of amputation and bilateral load asymmetry, we could assumed that joint moments
in the coronal plane during gait were highly related to the risk of osteoarthritis. Therefore, this study aimed to examine
the hip and knee adduction moments in the coronal plane in persons with unilateral transfemoral amputation during walking
through gait analysis. The subjects were 12 unilateral transfemoral amputees and 21 healthy persons. Three-dimensional motion
analysis was measured bilaterally from 33 persons during walking to calculate temporal-spatial parameters and joint moments.
The analysis compared the prosthetic side and the intact side of the amputee group and then analyzed the moment between both
the intact sides of the transfemoral amputee group and the healthy persons. The results showed that the intact knee adduction
moment of amputees increased by 32% compared to the prosthetic side and more than twice compared to the control group at terminal
stance. But the bilateral hip adduction moment was decreased compared to the control group (p<0.05). Therefore it is expected
that the higher knee adduction moment on the intact side may cause secondary complication to unilateral transfemoral amputees,
but it is difficult to make connection with hip osteoarthritis.
KeywordsUnilateral transfemoral amputees–Coronal plane–Joint moment–Osteoarthritis