Priyadarshini Cirumanur Subramaniam1 , Debbie Aishwarya Sathya2
BACKGROUND Primary goal of amputee rehabilitation is restoring functional mobility and secondary goal is optimizing the person’s quality of life and patient satisfaction with the prosthesis. The aim of this study was to analyse the two commonly used prosthesis namely the Laminated Exoskeletal Transtibial (TT) Prosthesis and the Modular Transtibial Prosthesis in terms of patient satisfaction with their prosthesis and also to identify the demographic profile in the study group. METHODS This is a cross- sectional questionnaire study conducted in the rehabilitation research department of a university hospital. Thirty unilateral transtibial amputees of whom fifteen using Laminated TT Prosthesis and fifteen using Modular TT Prosthesis for more than 1 year were selected for the study. Unpaired T test was used, and p value determined in the two groups for Trinity Amputation and Prosthesis Experience Scale Revised (TAPES-R) Aesthetic and Functional subscales using SPSS version 21 computer software. RESULTS 66.7% of subjects in the modular prosthesis group were very satisfied with the appearance of the prosthesis compared to only 20% in the laminated prosthesis group and had a statistically significant p value (0.001). 46.7% in the laminated prosthesis group were not satisfied with the weight of the prosthesis as compared to none in the modular prosthesis group which was statistically significant (p value <0.05). The mean overall score in aesthetic subscale and functional subscale for modular prosthesis group was 2.49 ± 0.25 and 2.27 ± 0.34 respectively compared to 1.87 ± 0.07 and 2.01 ± 0.26 for the laminated prosthesis group which was statistically significant (p value <0.05). CONCLUSIONS Modular prosthesis is by far superior in terms of patient satisfaction of prosthesis weight and aesthetic appeal.
