Helix3D

Enhanced safety, dynamic response and comfort

With the Helix3D hip joint system, Ottobock is setting new fitting standards for hip joint amputees after a technology standstill that lasted several decades. It is suitable for persons whose pelvis was retained (hip disarticulation) and also for those where part of the pelvis had to be removed (hemipelvectomy).

In the natural gait cycle, the pelvis rotates and moves in three dimensions. Through corresponding compensating movements with the sound leg, we are nevertheless able to set down the foot with the tip pointing forward. This ability of interior and exterior rotation, which is lost after the amputation, is replaced by the Helix3D hip joint system with its unique joint design. The miniature hydraulics integrated in the hip joint controls the three-dimensional movement patterns in the stance and swing phase. This makes the movement pattern far more physiological compared to conventional systems, which normally permit one-dimensional, forward and backward pendulum movements only and do not control these dynamically.