Prosthetic arm boasts sense of touch

Posted on 2005-06-23 14:31:33 in Musculoskeletal |

What was once just fiction is becoming reality. Artificial limbs are getting closer to the real thing. At the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Wednesday, the latest marriage between man and metal was unveiled. Researchers say they have the first person in history to ever have felt with his prosthetic hand.

Jesse Sullivan does the thinking, and his new bionic arm follows his command. It literally responds to his thoughts the way a natural arm would. This is the latest in what's known as a myoelectric prosthesis.

"We're taking the nerves that used to go to his arm and transferring then to some fresh skin and muscle so his brain doesn't know that this isn't his arm he feel," said Dr. Todd Kuiken, amputee services, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Several years ago Jesse lost his arms when he touched a wire at his job repairing utility lines. His older artificial limbs worked fine, but when doctors at the Rehab Institute of Chicago asked him to upgrade, he was game.

"There is no comparison. I had to bend over, hit a button, hold it in position, press buttons. There is a lot of work involved," Jesse said.

His bionic arm can not only go up and down, it can move left to right. To make this work, nerves were dissected from his shoulder and transferred to the muscles in his chest. These electrodes now pick up thought generated nerve impulses and transmit those to the mechanical prosthesis.

"That's like doing this. I just do that like you do, open and close. I can look at you and do that, I have to concentrate on the glass. I have to concentrate, but when I get into position I can close on it without even looking," said Jesse.

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