OSSUR/Victhom Active Powered Prosthetic Knee
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OSSUR recently announced that they will be manufacturing and distributing a motorized prosthetic knee mechanism being developed by a Quebec company named Victhom Human Bionics. Tom Andrews CP kindly provided the URL for Victhom's web site featuring this intriguing research. Click here for more information from Victhom, including a link to a short video demonstrating the performance of the knee during parallel bar and treadmill walking trials.
According to Victhom's founder, engineer Stephane Bedard, a computer that is programmed with the parameters from normal walking will control the movement of the powered prosthetic knee. Unlike all other lower limb prosthetic components, which are passive devices that can only dampen motion, the Victhom design actively flexes and extends the prosthetic knee. Theoretically, this should translate into a more energy efficient gait and more normal knee kinematics that is currently possible.
Previous researchers have tried to develop lower limb prosthetic components that provide active motion but their efforts have never succeeded outside the laboratory setting. If Victhom's prediction that this knee will be commercially available within a few months proves accurate, this could be one of the most significant advances in clinical care of the new millennium.
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