Ohio Willow Wood Fusion Foot

Advanced Prosthetics recently integrated the Ohio Willow Wood OMEGA Tracer CAD-CAM system. The system features a one-of-a-kind "Alpha Design Liner" program. The new imaging system is more accurate than traditional plaster impression techniques and simplifies the initial process of prosthetic fabrication. It allows the company to capture a digital image of the limb, and manipulate the model as a 3-D image on a computer screen.





Most prosthetic feet are designed to provide specific characteristics, like vertical shock or inversion and eversion, but few prosthetic feet actually provide several characteristics in one package. Ohio Willow Wood has broken the mold with the development of their Fusion Foot, a prosthetic foot which provides a spectrum of key traits for maximum user comfort and performance. The Fusion Foot's design allows the carbon fiber shank, heel and foot plate to work together through each step rather than independently, as is the case with traditional designs.

Bob Arbogast, Ohio Willow Wood's president, says, "Our thrust of new product development is to create products that improve the functionality and quality of life for amputees. Our research and development team studied the top-selling prosthetic feet to identify the core characteristics clinicians and amputees want in a prosthetic foot. Our team then designed a foot that delivers several of those core characteristics such as inversion/eversion, smooth heel-to-toe transition, and vertical shock absorption, rather than only one or two."

"While there are many other feet available on the market that provide multi-axial articulation and shock absorption, some are bulky, heavy and expensive," said Jim Colvin, Ohio Willow Wood's director of engineering. "It was our goal to develop a prosthetic foot that featured multi-axial articulation and shock absorption in a lightweight, compact, customizable and affordable design. Clinical and laboratory results have shown that we were able to achieve this goal with our unique carbon composite and bumper design. Key elements of the patent pending design are the toe and heel bumper assemblies, which suspend the carbon composite foot shank above the foot plate, allowing for controlled articulation and shock absorption of the foot shank and a very natural gait."

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