Pilot testing of a haptic feedback rehabilitation system on a lower-limb amputee

Lower-limb amputation, whether by trauma or complication of another condition, affects more than 800,000 people in the United States alone. These patient groups typically suffer from decreased mobility and an increased incidence of injury due to fall, even with the application of prosthetic limbs. A haptic feedback system prototype was previously developed to provide augmentative sensory information to patients suffering from total or attenuated lower-limb sensory loss. By providing tactile cues to the user based on plantar pressure distributions, it is hoped that this system can improve rehabilitation and functional outcomes following lower-limb injury. This paper presents an updated system that was fitted to the residual limb of a below-knee amputee, as well as a pilot study using the device. The pilot study demonstrated that the amputee could accurately perceive various tactile stimuli with high accuracy (Gt 87.5%), therefore indicating that the approach is feasible.