Preparing to walk with a prosthesis may seem complex and sometimes perplexing; however, the underlying factors that determine a person’s readiness to receive a prosthesis are relatively straightforward. A person must be healthy, with a minimum level of physical fitness, and have a well-healed residual limb, or stump. As simplistic as this may seem, in many cases, amputating a limb was a lifesaving measure because of disease, tumor or a severe traumatic accident. As a result, it is common that complications associated with the amputation affect overall health, physical fitness and healing of the residual limb.

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