A technological breakthrough has enabled a person with an arm amputation to manipulate each finger of a bionic hand as if it was his own.
A report, published in Science Translational Medicine, is the first documented case of an individual whose body was surgically modified to incorporate implanted sensors and a skeletal implant.
Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms translated the user’s intentions into movement of the prosthesis.
Prosthetic limbs are hard to control and often unreliable and remnant muscles in the residual limb are the preferred source of control for bionic hands.
However, at higher amputation levels there are too few remaining muscles to command the many robotic joints needed to restore the function of an arm and hand.
At the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden, a multidisciplinary team of surgeons and engineers in Sweden has now managed to reconfigure the residual limb and integrated sensors and a skeletal implant to connect with a prosthesis electrically and mechanically.
They dissected the peripheral nerves and redistributed them to new muscle targets used as biological amplifiers.
Dr Paolo Sassu, of the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Italy, completed the neuromuscular reconstruction procedure.
“The incredible journey we have undertaken together with the bionic engineers at the Centre for Bionics and Pain Research has allowed us to combine new microsurgical techniques with sophisticated implanted electrodes that provide single-finger control of a prosthetic arm as well as sensory feedback.”
“Patients who have suffered from an arm amputation might now see a brighter future”, added Dr Sassu, who also led the first hand transplantation performed in Scandinavia.
Zbinden J, Sassu P, Mastinu E et al. Improved control of a prosthetic limb by surgically creating electro-neuromuscular constructs with implanted electrodes. Science Translational Medicine 12 July 2023; doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abq3665
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