Lower Limb Amputee Recovery Response to an Imposed Mediolateral Error in Foot Placement

Lower limb amputees exhibit increased foot placement variability during gait [1–3] in part due to the lack of ankle musculature that reduces their ability to shift the prosthetic limb center of pressure (COP) [4]. In spite of compensating with a wider step width compared to non-amputees [2,3], amputees are still 20% more likely to fall compared to age-matched norms [5]. Since mediolateral (ML) balance is critical for successful ambulation and contingent on accurate ML foot placement [6,7], we chose to study how an error in ML foot placement affects amputee balance to gain a better understanding of the biomechanic strategies amputees employ to compensate for their lack of ankle musculature.