Clinical evaluation of externally powered prosthetic elbows.

1 Staff Engineer, Committee on Prosthetics Research and Development, National Research Council—National Academy of Sciences. This paper is a revision of Report E-4, which was prepared on behalf of the Subcommittee on Evaluation, CPRD. The study was supported by Contract SRS-71-8 between the Social and Rehabilitation Service and the National Academy of Sciences. During the past few years, several externally powered prosthetic elbows have been developed and attention has been called to them in the news media. On October 21-23, 1968, the Panel on UpperExtremity Prosthetics of the CPRD Subcommittee on Design and Development met to survey seven different elbows. Functional characteristics were examined, the elbows were demonstrated on amputees, and recommendations for future development and evaluation were made. Based on the recommendations of the Subcommittee on Design and Development and subsequent discussion and approval by the CPRD Subcommittee on Evaluation at its meeting on May 27, 1969, a clinical evaluation program was undertaken on the following: (1) the American Institute for Prosthetics Research (AIPR) elbow, (2) the Army Medical Biomechanical Research Laboratory (AMBRL) elbow, and (3) the Boston elbow. Because of the unavailability of the AIPR elbow, the Rancho Los Amigos Hospital elbow was later substituted for it. It was also decided that the elbows would be evaluated in the following six clinics: Jackson Memorial Hospital, New York University Prosthetics-Orthotics Studies, Northwestern University ProstheticsOrthotics Center, Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, University of California at Los Angeles Prosthetics-Orthotics Program, and the Veterans Administration Prosthetics Center. To acquire additional clinical experience with the elbows, J. E. Hanger, Inc. of Georgia was later added to the list.