• Profile
Close

New technique to make prosthetic limbs feel more natural

IANS Jun 06, 2017

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers, including one of Indian origin, have devised a new surgical technique that could allow prosthetic limbs to feel much more like natural limbs.

 

 



Through coordination of the prosthetic limb, existing nerves, and muscle grafts, amputees would be able to sense where their limbs are placed and to feel how much force is being applied to them.The researchers believe that their strategy could work for nearly any amputee, including people whose amputations were performed many years ago."For almost any amputation scenario, as long as we have a little bit of the healthy nerve left, we can take that and put it into regenerative muscle grafts," said the study's lead author Shriya Srinivasan, a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST).

"We can harvest these muscle grafts from almost anywhere in the body, making this applicable to a large number of cases ranging from trauma to chronic pain," Srinivasan said.In the new study, which appeared in the journal Science Robotics, the researchers demonstrated in rats that their technique generates muscle-tendon sensory feedback to the nervous system, which should be able to convey information about a prosthetic limb's placement and the forces applied to it.

They now plan to begin implementing this approach in human amputees."We're talking about a dramatic improvement in patient care," senior author of the study Hugh Herr, Professor at MIT."Right now there's no robust neural method for a person with limb amputation to feel proprioceptive positions and forces applied to the prosthesis. Imagine how that would completely hinder one's ability to move, to successfully balance, or to manipulate objects," Herr said. 

Only Doctors with an M3 India account can read this article. Sign up for free or login with your existing account.
4 reasons why Doctors love M3 India
  • Exclusive Write-ups & Webinars by KOLs

  • Nonloggedininfinity icon
    Daily Quiz by specialty
  • Nonloggedinlock icon
    Paid Market Research Surveys
  • Case discussions, News & Journals' summaries
Sign-up / Log In
x
M3 app logo
Choose easy access to M3 India from your mobile!


M3 instruc arrow
Add M3 India to your Home screen
Tap  Chrome menu  and select "Add to Home screen" to pin the M3 India App to your Home screen
Okay