The Ottawalk-Speed (OWS) orthosis prevents knee collapse in stumble situations. The purpose of this study was to develop a virtual stumble perturbation to measure OWS response to a knee collapse when walking. A new split speed perturbation was developed for the CAREN virtual reality system. This perturbation induced a stumble with increased knee flexion for five able-bodied participants, with either a hopping or stopping recovery strategy. Three knee-ankle-foot orthosis users were subjected to five stumble trials while wearing the OWS. OWS participants used a straight-legged recovery strategy, and extended the knee through recovery weight acceptance. Therefore, the split speed perturbation was not appropriate to measure OWS response to a stumble since knee collapse did not occur. The OWS allowed free knee motion during gait. Further study is required to measure OWS response during a stumble with a knee collapse event.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/24225 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Montgomery, Whitney S. |
| Contributors | Lemaire, Edward |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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