Article

The rehabilitation of U.S. military servicemembers (SMs) who have sustained a
traumatic loss of one or both lower limbs requires outcome measures that can
assess their physical capabilities in comparison with their uninjured colleagues.
Describing reference ranges for the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) in both populations
will help clinicians develop appropriate goals for rehabilitation and document
progress toward those goals. A convenience sample of 118 male U.S. SMs with and
97 without traumatic lower-limb loss participated in this study. All participants
completed a 6MWT, and comparisons were made between SMs with and without limb
loss and among the levels of limb loss. The SMs without lower-limb loss performed
significantly better than all SMs with lower-limb loss. The SMs with transtibial
limb loss performed significantly better than those with all other levels of limb
loss. Statistically significant and clinically relevant differences were also
noted between the other levels of limb loss. No differences were found between
different prosthetic components. Reference ranges were established for U.S. SMs
with and without various levels of limb loss, and the 6MWT was able to identify
functional differences between groups.

Langue : ANGLAIS