Prosthetic Ankle Joint Mechanism
First Claim
1. A prosthetic ankle joint mechanism providing a continuously hydraulically damped range of ankle flexion, the mechanism being constructed and arranged such that, over at least part of said range, damping resistance is the predominant resistance to flexion.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A self-aligning prosthetic foot and ankle assembly has an ankle unit pivotally mounting a foot component. The ankle unit contains a hydraulic piston and cylinder assembly having a piston which is linearly movable within a cylinder. The axis of the cylinder is coincident with a shin axis defined by a shin connection interface on the ankle unit. Bypass passages containing damping resistance control valves provide continuous hydraulic damping of dorsi and plantar ankle flexion, the unit being such that, over the major part of the range of damped movement, there is no resilient biasing in either the dorsi or the plantar direction. This confers a number of advantages, including stabilisation of standing, balance control, and improved stair-walking and ramp-walking.
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Citations
37 Claims
- 1. A prosthetic ankle joint mechanism providing a continuously hydraulically damped range of ankle flexion, the mechanism being constructed and arranged such that, over at least part of said range, damping resistance is the predominant resistance to flexion.
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7. A prosthetic ankle joint mechanism providing a continuously hydraulically damped range of ankle flexion, the mechanism being constructed and arranged such that, over at least part of the range, movement in the dorsi and plantar directions is substantially unbiased resiliently.
- 31. A prosthetic ankle unit comprising a foot connection interface, a shin connection interface pivotally connected to the foot connection interface to allow flexion of the unit, and an ankle joint mechanism comprising a piston and cylinder assembly having a piston that is movable in a fluid-filled chamber of the assembly, the piston being associated with one of the interfaces and the chamber with the other so that when the shin connection interface pivots relative to the foot connection interface, the piston moves in the chamber, fluid being admitted to or expelled from the chamber through at least one damping orifice according to the direction of flexion of the unit, whereby the ankle joint unit provides a continuously hydraulically damped range of ankle flexion and is constructed and arranged such that, over at least part of said range, the damping resistance is the predominant resistance to flexion, and wherein the unit further comprises flexion limiting means limiting dorsi-flexion of the unit to a dorsi-flexion limit corresponding to a selected angular position of the interfaces relative to each other, and wherein at least one of the connection interfaces is configured to allow anterior-posterior tilt adjustment.
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35. A lower limb prosthesis comprising a shin component defining a shin axis, a foot component, and a joint mechanism interconnecting the shin and foot components and allowing user selection of joint mechanism operation mode between a locked mode and a yielding mode, wherein the joint mechanism is arranged to permit:
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(i) stepless adjustment about a medial-lateral joint axis of a relative orientation between the shin axis and foot component, the mechanism being lockable for operation in the locked mode with the relative orientation fixed at an adjusted setting; and (ii) in the yielding mode, damped dorsi- and plantar-flexion over a limited angular range, the joint mechanism being constructed and arranged such that, over at least part of said range, the damping resistance is the predominant resistance to flexion. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37)
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Specification