2023-10-20 09:30:51
What biotechnological innovation should we not miss this month? A hand prosthesis that renews the field of human-machine interface…
After amputation, restoring lost sensorimotor functions is an immense challenge. Human-machine interfaces often lack reliability in controls and fixation, making the use of prostheses uncomfortable for patients. A multidisciplinary team of engineers and surgeons set out to work on new interfaces capable of overcoming these obstacles. The project was led on one side by Professor Max Ortiz Catalan, head of the Bionics Institute (Australia) and founder of the Center for Bionics and Pain Research (Sweden), and on the other by Rickard Branemark, associate researcher at MIT (United States) and associate professor at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), in charge of surgery. With the help of their colleagues, they managed to clinically implant a neuromusculoskeletal prosthesis. Specifically, they connected a bionic hand directly to the user’s nervous and skeletal systems.
A bionic hand made of titanium
The patient who received this prosthesis was the victim of a farm accident more than 20 years ago. As a result of this accident, the woman born in 1973 had to have an amputation just below the elbow. Unfortunately for her, since the operation she has continued to suffer from phantom limb pain. A phenomenon that affects nearly two thirds of new amputees. In addition, conventional prostheses, which were too limited, did not suit him. But luck changed as she ended up joining the study of professors Ortiz Catalan and Branemark between September 2018 and April 2021. She was then the first to experiment with the interface developed by their respective teams.
Here is the first person to have had a bionic hand connected to the neuromusculoskeletal system. Credits: Ortiz-Catalan et al., Sci. Rob., 2023/Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies.
To succeed in grafting a bionic hand, scientists had to carry out several implantations described in detail in Science Robotics on October 11, 2023. First, titanium implants were placed in contact with the inner part of the forearm bones (radius and ulna). Then, electro-muscular constructs were created surgically, by transferring cut nerves to muscle grafts. These latter, as well as the native muscles and the ulnar nerves – relating to the ulna – were in turn implanted with multiple electrodes. Finally, transdermal extensions – applied to the skin – of titanium implants made it possible to directly attach the prosthesis to the skeleton, while allowing bidirectional communication between the electrodes and the bionic hand. And the result was there! Indeed, years of daily use later, the bionic hand still works and relieves its user of pain due to its better integration with the rest of their body.
Image credit of one: cottonbro studio – Pexels
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