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Gait was analyzed in seven otherwise healthy males at least 11 mo after they had recovered from a traumatic unilateral transmetatarsal amputation incurred during the course of their usual occupation. All seven were fitted with a semirigid foot orthosis. Four were also fitted with a Chopart prosthesis. Gait was evaluated with forceplate measurements of ground reaction force during free walking, by clinical observation of such ambulation on videotape, and by the subjective impression of the men as obtained by a questionnaire. In all men, with unmodified footwear, with the orthosis, and with the prosthesis, the forceplate data showed an abnormal pattern characterized by reduced stance duration and deficient forward propulsion on the amputated side. The abnormality and asymmetry of ground-reaction forces were less with greater preserved stump length and for a given stump length were with the above-ankle concept (Chopart) prosthesis than with the below-ankle concept. These features were recognized during the clinical analysis of all footwear, but there was an extra irregularity of weight progression noted with the fixed ankle of the Chopart prosthesis. The questionnaire reported stump problems to be the principal difficulty, and the follow-up revealed persistent attempts at surgical management including consideration of amputation at a higher level. It was concluded that the patient and the surgeons are likely to choose preservation of limb length over considerations of function during acute care and that the prosthetic concept best suited to deal with the resulting stump should emphasize unloading the distal part of the stump and smoothing out the impulsive force peak on the stump in late stance to minimize pain and to enhance ambulation capacity.

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