Learn a systematic approach to conducting a literature review in the context of surveying existing research regarding prosthetic foot and ankle systems. This course guides you through each step of conducting a formal literature review and assesses comparative experimental trials, clinical literature and subjective outcomes studies. The research presented here formed the basis for the State of the Science Conference on Prosthetic Foot/Ankle Systems which convened in April 2005. The literature review covers important elements including assessing quality in research, the different types of research available, and a summary of all available evidence. The three primary questions addressed by the review include:

1. What scientific methods have been used to assess the functional performance of prosthetic foot and ankle systems in current use.
2. What is the correlation between the available scientific measurements and the clinical methods used to recommend prosthetic foot-ankle components.
3. What is the correlation between prosthetic foot-ankle systems and prosthetic outcomes?