A REVIEW OF PROSTHETIC INTERFACE STRESS INVESTIGATIONS

Over the last decade, numerous experimental and numerical analyses hav e been conducted to investigate the stress distribution between the re sidual limb and prosthetic socket of persons with lower limb amputatio n. The objectives of these analyses have been to improve our understan ding of the residual limb/prosthetic socket system, to evaluate the in fluence of prosthetic design parameters and alignment variations on th e interface stress distribution, and to evaluate prosthetic fit. The p urpose of this paper is to summarize these experimental investigations and identify associated limitations. In addition, this paper presents an overview of various computer models used to investigate the residu al limb interface, and discusses the differences and potential ramific ations of the various modeling formulations, Finally, the potential an d future applications of these experimental and numerical analyses in prosthetic design are presented.