Received: 2012/12/2 | Accepted: 2013/08/24 | Published: 2013/08/24
URL: http://ijwph.daneshafarand.org/article-3-85148-en.html
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Background: Lower limb amputations are caused by trauma, vascular disease, diabetes and congenital disorders. Amputees lose their ability to stand and walk based on the level of amputation. Contribution of the level of amputation, type of amputation, or cause of amputation to balance impairment has not been clearly defined. Furthermore, it is controversial whether prosthetic components influence standing stability or not. Therefore, the aim of this review article was to find the relationship between the above-mentioned factors and balance impairment in the available literature.
Method: An electronic search was done via the PubMed, Embase and ISI web of knowledge data bases from 1960 to 2012. Quality of papers was assessed using the Down and Black tool.
Results: Based on the used keywords, 100 papers were found of which 20 papers were selected in accordance with the selection criteria. The scores of reporting, external validity, internal validity (bias), internal validity (confounding) varied between 4-9, 1-3, 3-5, 2-6, respectively.
Conclusion: The literature review confirmed that standing stability of amputees depends on level of amputation, type of amputation and cause of amputation. Moreover, prosthetic characteristics such as prosthetic ankle stiffness have influences on dynamic stability while torsional adaptor does not have any positive influence on stability during level walking and on turning stability. It is recommended to measure the influence of other prosthetic components on standing stability.