Prosthetic ankle joint mechanism
DCFirst Claim
1. A prosthetic foot and ankle assembly comprising the combination of:
- a foot component, andan ankle joint mounted to the foot component, the ankle joint comprising;
a joint mechanism providing resistance to ankle flexion, wherein the joint mechanism is constructed and arranged such that during walking said resistance is predominantly provided by hydraulic damping whenever the ankle joint is flexed in both dorsi- and plantar-flexion directions.
2 Assignments
Litigations
2 Petitions
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.
42 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A prosthetic foot and ankle assembly comprising the combination of:
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a foot component, and an ankle joint mounted to the foot component, the ankle joint comprising; a joint mechanism providing resistance to ankle flexion, wherein the joint mechanism is constructed and arranged such that during walking said resistance is predominantly provided by hydraulic damping whenever the ankle joint is flexed in both dorsi- and plantar-flexion directions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A lower limb prosthesis comprising:
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a shin component defining a shin axis, a foot component, and a prosthetic ankle joint comprising a mechanism providing resistance to ankle flexion, wherein the mechanism is constructed and arranged such that said resistance is predominantly provided by hydraulic damping whenever the ankle joint is flexed in both dorsi- and plantar-flexion directions, said ankle joint coupling the shin component to the foot component, wherein at least one of the foot component and the shin component includes a resilient section allowing resilient dorsi-flexion of at least an anterior portion of the foot component relative to the shin axis. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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- 20. A prosthetic foot/ankle assembly comprising the combination of (a) a prosthetic ankle joint comprising a mechanism providing resistance to ankle flexion, wherein the mechanism is constructed and arranged such that said resistance is predominantly provided by hydraulic damping whenever the ankle joint is flexed in both dorsi- and plantar-flexion directions, and (b) a prosthetic foot having an anterior portion, a posterior portion and an ankle-mounting portion, wherein the assembly constitutes a Maxwell-model damper/spring combination comprising a damper element and a spring element, wherein the damper element is said ankle joint and the spring element is a spring component arranged in series with the ankle joint.
Specification