New Prosthetic Hand Allows Wearers To Have Real Sensations Of Touch
New Prosthetic Hand Allows Wearers To Have Real Sensations Of Touch
One of the challenges with prosthetic limbs is that, without nerves, the wearer cannot experience dexterity or sense of feeling when touching something. However, research being conducted by the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (SSSA) in Italy may have a solution.
New Prosthetic Hand allows wearers have sensations of touch
Thirty-six-year-old Dennis Aabo Sørensen of Denmark lost his left hand nine years ago while handling fireworks during a family holiday. Dr. Silvestri from the Sant’Anna School and his team chose Sørensen to test the prototype of their new touch enabled hand in February during a clinical trial. According to results published this week, Sorenson was able to feel the pressure (dexterity) he was applying to several objects including pens, kitchen utensils, and plastic cups.
How it works.
In January, the neurology group from Santa Anna implanted trans-neural electrodes in the ulnar and median nerves of Sorenson’s left arm. The neural electrodes channeled weak electrical signals directly into his nervous system. The electrodes were then connected at the other end to the prosthetic hand, which measured the tension in the artificial tendons that control the fingers movement. This dexterity data was converted back into an an electrical impulse the nervous system was able to interpret.
This break through will no doubt usher in a new era of natural feeling, life like prosthetic’s for injury victims.
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