While walkers are commonly prescribed to improve patient stability and ambulatory ability,quantitative study of the biomechanical and functional requirements for effective walker use is limited.To investigate the changes in wrist joint moments that occur with the use of a standard walker,a strain gauge-based walker instrumentation sys- tem was developed for the measurement of wrist joint moments.This walker dynamometer was integrated with an up- per extremity biomechanical model.Preliminary system data were collected for twelve healthy,right-handed young a- dults following informed consent.Bilateral upper extremity kinematic data were acquired with a six-camera motion a- nalysis system.Internal joint moments at the wrist were determined in the three clinical planes using the inverse dy- namics method.Results showed that during a walker-assisted gait there were several typical demands of wrist abduc- tor,adductor,flexor and external rotator.An interesting'bare phase'of wrist joint moments was also found in phase angle[-30°,30°]of gait cycle.Complete description of wrist joint moments during walker-assisted gait may pro- vide insight into walker use parameters and rehabilitative strategies.
