Jaipur Rehabilitation Technology

“Jaipur foot” (Arya and Klenerman, J Bone Joint Surg Br 90:1414–1416, 2008) is a prosthetic foot piece designed and developed by Dr. P.K. Sethi in Jaipur to be used by amputees to follow floor sitting culture. It allows the amputees to sit cross-legged on the floor and squat to use the Indian toilet. It looks like a normal foot. It is made up of several layers of microcellular rubber reinforced by rubberized tire code and tread rubber with a wooden ankle block having a metal bolt through which a shank and socket could be attached. Jaipur foot has more contact area with the ground as compared to other foot pieces, so amputees feel more stable. Due to the presence of inversion and eversion, it makes walking on uneven terrain very easy. It has a waterproof external rubber covering, so it can be used by farmers in the fields. It can be used with or without shoes with equal ease. Jaipur foot is the cheapest prosthetic foot piece available in the world ($7). It can be attached to any type of shank. We expect it to last for 3 years. Jaipur foot has been used in nearly 45 countries in the last 50 years. We have also worked in replacing conventional metal and wood calipers by low-weight thermoplastic orthosis used for poliomyelitis. Conventional calipers (Huckstep RL. Poliomyelitis: guide for developing countries. New York: Longman; 1975) were very heavy and cumbersome to use and did not allow knee flexion while walking. A majority of these calipers were designed to permit swing-phase knee flexion while walking, thus reducing energy consumption significantly. They allowed the patients to use shoes of their choice. Walking on uneven terrain improved significantly. Since these are total-contact orthosis, they can be worn inside the clothes and are not visible from the outside. A 90% rejection rate of conventional calipers got converted to an above 95% acceptance rate. The calipers initially designed for poliomyelitis were successfully used in many other paralytic and musculoskeletal conditions like cerebral palsy, spinal injuries, nerve injuries, head injuries, stroke, myopathies, spina bifida, fracture bracing, congenital deformities, LGB syndrome, and diabetic foot with very good results.