| abstract |
An artificial limb has an endoskeletal shin component (10A) which is of generally constant H-shaped cross section and is formed by injection moulding from thermoplastics material. In a preferred embodiment, the limb has a foot keel (10B) which is integrally moulded with the shin component (10A), the keel (10B) having a longitudinal web (20) which is coplanar with a central web (12) of the shin component (10A). The keel (10B) also has upper flanges (24, 26) which are contiguous with anterior and posterior flanges (14, 16) of the shin component (10A). Such a limb can be made light in weight yet strong in terms of resistance to transverse bending moments, and can be inexpensively produced. The constant cross section of the skin component allows it to be cut to a required length and clamped to an upper limb component (52, 60). |