Thermal Assessment for Prostheses: State-of-the-Art Review

Abstract

Hundreds of young people have had limbs amputated after being wounded by civil wars, explosions or gunshots. Heat and perspiration within a prosthetic socket are the most common side effects of reduced quality life for prosthesis. Besides, the environment between liner and skin is an ideal host of residual limb skin problems such as contact dermatitis and bacterial infections. It is important to minimize the limiting heat transfer to improve amputee safety and comfort. Usually, when there is a skin problem, the treatment requires the amputee not to wear his/her prosthesis for an extended period of time. This functional loss can adversely affect the amputee’s physical, mental and emotional well-being. This work aims to highlight a number of important issues concerning the effect of thermal conditions on prosthetics to shed light on new design methods for prosthetics.