ABSTRACT

　Patients with upper limb deficiencies have almost no chance that functional artificial arms are prescribed for in Japan. In addition children with upper limb deficiencies face to the participation restrictions at the class of physical education during the elementary education course. On the other hand Crandall RC strongly concluded that unilateral pediatric amputees should be offered a variety of prosthetic options to help with normal activities of daily living. In this report, we evaluated the durability and the quality of the artificial arm terminal device Shroom Tumbler (TRS) which is used in gymnastic competitions in North America, because we considered this terminal device is suitable for use also in Japan. As long as the elementary school students use it when vaulting horse at the class of physical education, we elucidated that this terminal devise possesses sufficient durability that fatigue destruction accompanying use does not occur even if it is used for three years. We provided a child with unilateral upper limb deficiency with the special prosthetic arms which used the Shroom Tumbler as the terminal device, and evaluated them. We considered how the sockets and the liners should be made or selected, how the children should be trained with this prosthetic arms, and whether they are useful or not in actual use.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.38/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE