Patent ID: 8057551

Claim:
A lanyard suspension system for a prosthetic limb, the prosthetic limb including a prosthetic limb socket component having an interior and an inner surface, the lanyard suspension system comprising: a lanyard cord adapted to extend from a distal end of a patient's residual limb, the lanyard cord having a substantially circular cross section; and a lanyard lock assembly sized and shaped to be seated within the interior of the prosthetic limb socket component, between the inner surface of the prosthetic limb socket component and the patient's residual limb, at a distal end of a patient's prosthetic limb socket component, the lanyard lock assembly including a substantially cylindrical lanyard lock base, sized and shaped to be removably mounted entirely within the interior of the prosthetic limb socket component, and having a lanyard cord channel extending therethrough from an inlet hole in a substantially circular, at least partially concave proximal surface of the lanyard lock base to an outlet hole in one of a side surface and a generally circular distal surface of the lanyard lock base, wherein the lanyard cord channel is adapted to receive the lanyard cord extending therethrough; a locking mechanism provided within the lanyard lock base, the locking mechanism being designed to allow the lanyard cord to substantially freely thread through the lanyard cord channel from the inlet hole to the outlet hole while substantially inhibiting the lanyard cord to thread in the opposite direction when in an active setting and designed to allow the lanyard cord to freely thread through the lanyard cord channel in both directions when in an inactive setting, the locking mechanism acting on a portion of the lanyard cord within the lanyard cord channel of the lanyard lock base; and a cord retraction mechanism including a spool operative to receive slack lanyard cord thereabout via a feed hole, the slack lanyard cord extending between the outlet hole and the feed hole; the locking mechanism utilizing at least one biased jaw provided completely within the lanyard lock base for engaging with the lanyard cord in the cord channel when the lanyard cord is pulled in the opposite direction in the active setting; and wherein the lanyard cord extends from the distal end of the patient's residual limb, through the inlet hole in the proximal surface of the lanyard lock base, through the lanyard cord channel of the lanyard lock base, through the outlet hole in one of the side surface and the distal surface of the lanyard lock base, through the feed hole of the cord retraction mechanism, and to the spool of the cord retraction mechanism.