Artificial Limbs of Today and Tomorrow
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What Are the Main Types of Prosthetic Limbs?
How Do These Limbs Work?
For Transradial and Transhumeral, AKA arm prostheses, two prosthetic types are available.
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Cable Operated Limbs: These work by attatching a harness and cable around the shoulder that is opposite to the damaged arm.
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Myoelectric Prosthetics: These are typically controlled by battery power. Using electrodes, they are able to sense when a muscle in the arm moves, signaling the prosthetic hand to open or close (Citation 3).
In Transtibial and Transfemoral Prostheses, the type of prosthesic depends on what part of the limb is missing. According to encyclopedia Britannica, there are "two types of lower limb prostheses: the prosthesis held on by means of a belt around the pelvis or suspended from the shoulder by straps, and the prosthesis kept in contact with the leg stump by suction, the belt and shoulder straps being eliminated" (7) In the video below, you can see how a person with an above knee transfemoral prosthetic puts his limb on and takes it off.
While there is a wide variety of prosthetic limbs, there are four main types.
These include:
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Transhumeral Prostheses: artificial limbs that replaces an arm missing above the elbow.
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Transradial Prostheses: artificial limbs that replaces an arm missing below the elbow.
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Transtibial Prostheses: artificial limbs that replace a leg missing below the knee.
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Transfemoral Prostheses: artificial limbs that replaces a limb missing above the knee
Other Types:
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Knee disarticulations - This usually refers to an amputation through the knee seperating the femur from the tibia.
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Symes - This is an ankle seperation while preserving the heel pad. In this case it seems as though the leg ends just above the ankle (9).
"Roger shows you how to take off and put on an above knee prosthetic leg with passive suction and an iceross seal-in liner."
To visit the AmputeeOT's youtube channel to view more videos like this one, click the button below.
E-Nable
Robohand
When the e-Nable Community started in 2013, it consisted of about 300 people who owned 3D printers or who had design skills to share. These were people who wanted to help improve the first open sourced design for 3D printed hands that had been released online, by the Robohand Project discussed below. They simply wanted to use their machines to help print and assemble free 3D printed prosthetic devices to anyone that reached out to them. They especially were able to help children for whom high-tech prosthetic devices were not affordable nor attainable. Watch the video to the right to learn more about how e-Nable and other companies manufacture affordable advanced prosthetic limbs.
Robohand is a project started by Richard Van As, who had lost a few of his fingers while working as a carpenter. He was told that the cost to replace his lost fingers with prosthetics ones would be around 10,000 dollars a finger. Richard got in touch with Ivan Owens, prop designer, and they both collaborated to create a design for working fingers that could be built inexpensively and reliably. After numerous experiments, they came to the idea of using a 3D printer. Two 3D printers were donated by MakerBot industries. As a result, a free Robohand model was available to be downloaded by anyone who needed it. Van As 3D prints prosthetic limbs for children and those in need for no personal profit. The first boy to recieve one of these prosthetics was Liam, who is pictured below. Now Liam can live a normal life despite being born with missing fingers. Visit the Robohand Blog by clicking on Liam to learn more.
About the Video: TALK TO THE HAND is a Semifinalist in the $200,000 GE FOCUS FORWARD Filmmaker Competition. Directed by Antonio Bencini Farina, it has also been recognized as an Audience Favorite.
There are three main drawbacks to the traditional prosthetic. These are: low functionality, low controllability and less than appealing physical appearance. When Marco Controzzi and Christian Cipriani developed ‘Azzurra’, a fully functional bionic hand which can be controlled by the human mind, they achieved more than a revolution in prosthetics. Thanks to a bionic interface, not only can an amputee ‘talk’ to a bionic hand, which responds as if it were their own, but the hand ‘talks’ back, offering both touch sensation and a dialogue with human evolution.
3-D Printed Prosthetics
Talk to the Hand: Bionic Prosthetics
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