Losing a limb is a traumatic event for most people who go through it. Moving forward usually requires a lot of time and support. Fortunately, there are many paths towards recovery and rehabilitation and this includes prosthesis. The Baltimore Sun reports on an interesting new development in prosthetic technology: thought control.
Video: A doctor at Johns Hopkins is working on the development of thought-controlled robotic arms to aid amputees. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun video) | Video source: The Baltimore Sun
One minute, Anne Mekalian's brain is telling her prosthetic arm to unstack a set of multicolored plastic cones, and the shiny black metal limb is listening. Every now and then, the plastic clatters to the table, but quickly the cones are separated and restored to a neat pile.
The next moment, though, the bionic hand doesn't know what to make of slight muscle movements in Mekalian's forearm, interpreted through a set of electrodes touching the skin on the rounded remnant limb that extends just below her elbow. Instead of pinching a red clothespin, the robotic hand spins like Linda Blair's head in "The Exorcist."
"This is why it's experimental, right?" Mekalian, of Joppatowne, joked to a group of scientists who had gathered in an office at Johns Hopkins Hospital to watch her as part of clinical trials of advanced prosthetics.
Despite occasional setbacks — and, perhaps, because of them — the technology is advancing quickly. Over the past several months, Mekalian and two other amputees working with a Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon and local company have been among the first in the nation to take home thought-controlled robotic arms designed for wounded veterans.
While the devices haven't been perfect replacements for limbs lost, they have brought a glimpse of what patients took for granted before being struck by infection, cancer or violence. Trial and error applying the technology to their daily lives — putting on makeup, cooking, carrying a laundry basket — is leading to refinements. The scientists say the technology could be available within a couple of years to countless others commercially, with plans for U.S. Food and Drug Administration review next year.
Before that can happen, the scientists are learning all they can through the 67-year-old Mekalian and the others.
"We're almost inventing a new field of medicine," said Dr. Albert Chi, a Johns Hopkins trauma surgeon working with the patients. "We're kind of learning as we go. There's no textbooks out there."Read the entire article here.
Dr. Mary Kneiser and physical medicine experts await this newest development in prosthetic technology eagerly as this may mean better things for amputees. For more on physical rehabilitation, follow this Facebook page.
