Prosthetic socket design and interface pressure, SACH versus energy-storing feet, mechanical versus microprocessor knees, orthotic bracing, and the gait cycle.
The socket is the single component that determines whether a prosthesis is usable at all, since it is the only interface transferring load between a rigid device and living tissue never evolved to bear weight through its skin, and this module builds socket design principles — patellar-tendon-bearing versus total-surface-bearing load distribution — before comparing SACH versus energy-storing prosthetic feet and mechanical versus microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knees.
It then covers orthotic bracing's three-point pressure system and the stance and swing phases of the gait cycle that every lower-limb prosthetic or orthotic device is ultimately designed around, drawing directly on the bone and soft-tissue biomechanics built in Module 5 and the biomaterials selection built in Module 4.