An evaluation of patient perceptions to the value of the gait laboratory as part of the rehabilitation of primary lower limb amputees

Abstract

The value of gait analysis for research and product development/evaluation in prosthetics is well understood. However, in the rehabilitation of amputees, the application of gait analysis beyond observation in the clinical setting is not routinely practiced, largely due to the cost and time taken to complete a fully instrumented data collection and analysis. To address the time issue, a weekly clinical gait service for primary amputees, based around a reduced data set from video and video vector technology, has been developed. In this clinic primary amputees are seen twice in the Gait Laboratory during their rehabilitation period, with the clinic time for each patient being no more than 15 minutes, which covers both data collection and review. A questionnaire was developed to evaluate the patients' perceptions of the clinic. The questionnaire was completed anonymously by 48 primary amputees over a 6-month period. The results from the questionnaire demonstrate that the clinic was perceived positively by the patients, and suggested areas of future development, e.g. the education of junior staff, and the need to include the patient's physiotherapist in the data collection and review process.