Austrian specialists amputated three patients’ paralyzed hands and replaced them with bionic limbs, thanks to which they are more agile, reports New Scientist.
The treatments were conducted under the supervision of prof. Oskar Ashmann from the Medical University of Vienna, specializing in plastic and reconstructive surgery. He said that the operated patients had completely lost their use of hands as a result of the accident.
They suffered from damage to the brachial plexus, which runs the nerves that connect the spinal cord to the hands. No treatments helped them, although some nerve fibers were preserved. The hands, however, are extremely strongly innervated, especially in the whole body. Even slight damage can make handling much more difficult. In three of the men, the hands were almost completely paralyzed.
Prof. Aszmann suggested that they remove their paralyzed limbs and replace them with bionic hands that can be controlled. Such a procedure allows the limb to be removed in such a place and in a way that is most beneficial for the implantation of an artificial hand.
First, however, a small fragment of the muscle taken from the legs was transplanted into the paralyzed hands. The idea was to stimulate the nerves of the paralyzed hand to transmit signals even before the operation. And then use them to control the artificial limb.
After three months, when the nerves had grown into the graft, patients still had to learn how to move it. They also practiced controlling a virtual limb. Only after they mastered it, were the men had their limbs amputated and replaced with bionic hands controlled by muscles and sensors.
Prof. Aszmann claims that bionic hands improved patients’ fitness. On a 9-point scale, it increased from just 65 points with their own but paralyzed limb, to as much as XNUMX points. They are now able to pour teapot into a cup, grab a ball and press buttons.
In the future, it will be possible to use more comfortable bionic limbs directly controlled by brain waves. Specialists from the University of Pittsburgh in the paralyzed woman have already implanted electrodes into the brain that allow it to receive and then send brain waves to control the robot.
Dr. Dustin Tyler of the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland says he is conducting research into bionic limbs that are controlled wirelessly by waves received from the brain. They will be available in three or four years. (PAP)