A woman from Sweden who lost her right hand in a farming accident has been implanted with a “groundbreaking” bionic hand that merges directly with her nerves and skeleton.
The tragic accident left Karin experiencing excruciating phantom limb pain for more than two decades — and she found conventional prostheses to be uncomfortable and unreliable.
She explained: “It felt like I constantly had my hand in a meat grinder, which created a high level of stress and I had to take high doses of various painkillers.”
All this changed, however, with the new implant technology, which both provided the ability to wear a more comfortable, functional prostheses — one that allows her to carry out “80 percent of the activities of daily living” — but also helped relieve her pain.
Karin added: “For me, this research has meant a lot, as it has given me a better life.”
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The study overseeing Karin’s new hand was undertaken by Professor Max Ortiz-Catalan — a neural prosthetics expert at the Bionics Institute in Australia — and his colleagues.
Ortiz-Catalan said: “Karin was the first person with below-elbow amputation who received this new concept of a highly integrated bionic hand that can be used independently and reliably in daily life.
“The fact that she has been able to use her prosthesis comfortably and effectively in daily activities for years is a promising testament to the potential life-changing capabilities of this novel technology for individuals facing limb loss.”
The researchers explained that, at this level of amputation, a challenge is posed by the bones of the forearm — the radius and the ulna.
Both must be aligned and loaded equally, they said, meaning that not much space is left available for implanted and prosthetic components.
Nevertheless, the team were able to design an implant that integrates with Karin’s nervous system.
Ortiz-Catalan added: “Our integrated surgical and engineering approach also explains the reduction in pain, as Karin is now using somewhat the same neural resources to control the prosthesis as she did for her missing biological hand.”
Karin reports that, compared to previous solutions she tried, she now has “better control over my prosthesis — but, above all, my pain has decreased. Today, I need much less medication.”
The titanium of the implant is attached to her skeleton comfortably and securely via a process dubbed “osseointegration”.
Paper co-author Professor Rickard Brånemark — an orthopedic surgeon with the University of Gothenburg in Sweden — led Karin’s operation, which involved the re-arrangement of the nerves and muscles in the residual limb to offer better motor control information to the bionic hand.
He said: “The biological integration of titanium implants into bone tissue creates opportunities to further advance amputee care.
“By combining osseointegration with reconstructive surgery, implanted electrodes, and artificial intelligence, we can restore human function in an unprecedented way.
“The below elbow amputation level has particular challenges, and the level of functionality achieved marks an important milestone for the field of advanced extremity reconstructions as a whole”.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Science Robotics.
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