Vacuum Suspension: Effects on Tissue Oxygenation, Activity and Fit

A proper fitting prosthetic socket provides the amputee with a comfortable system allowing them to pursue many of their desired vocational and recreational goals. Unfortunately, many amputees live with an ill-fitting socket and can experience limb pistoning within the socket, which in turn may result in skin irritation, tissue breakdown, discomfort, and a reduction in activity. One of the key factors affecting fit is intraday residual limb volume changes. For an amputee with dysvascular conditions, the implications of a poor fitting socket are exacerbated by poor circulation, reduced healing potential and the compressive forces exerted by their prosthesis.

Vacuum suspension systems may have the potential to alleviate these conditions for healthy and dysvascular amputees. The purported benefits of vacuum suspension systems include, but are not limited to: improved suspension (reduction in the amount of pistoning), maintenance of limb volume throughout the day, and increased tissue oxygenation to the residual limb.

Our first objective is to characterize performance, as related to socket fit, of a vacuum suspension system using objective and subjective measures. We will do this by conducting a within-subject experiment to measure pistoning in three dimensions while walking, overall and regional changes in limb volume before and after a thirty-minute treadmill walk, mobility (step counts) and the perception of socket fit (questionnaire) as a function of prosthetic prescription (vacuum suspension system vs. total surface bearing suction socket).

Our second objective is to determine the effect of pressures within a prosthetic socket on residual limb transcutaneous oxygen tension (tcpO2) levels. We will conduct laboratory-based, in situ testing to determine how the transcutaneous oxygen tension levels, at six sites on the residual limb, respond to pressures simulating those within a vacuum suspension system and a total surface bearing suction socket.

The proposed research will allow us to understand how suspension systems influence prosthetic socket fit and residual limb tissue health and to formulate a knowledge base on two suspension systems providing prosthetists and clinicians the objective data to make better prescription decisions. In addition, the methods utilized in this study (e.g., a residual limb limb volume scanner and assessing dynamic pistoning) can be used to study current and novel suspension systems, liners, and prosthetic socket designs to provide a standard for comparison.