In the past decade, advances in upper limb socket design and technology have been proposed to increase comfort and decrease perceived weight of the prosthesis. There have been no scientific studies to date that have evaluated the benefits of these designs, and thus no evidence to support use of one type of prosthetic socket design over another. Thus, the overall purpose of this pilot study was to conduct a head-to-head comparison of two designs for transhumeral level upper limb prosthetic sockets: a traditional socket design and a socket design hypothesized to provide greater skeletal stabilization.
