Disabled Hands Successfully Replaced with Bionic Prosthetics
If they can brave a voluntary amputation, people with a disabled, nerve-damaged hand can now have it surgically replaced
By Dan Robitzski | Scientific American May 2017 Issue
Some 1.6 million people in the U.S. live with limb loss, according to a 2008 study, and that number could more than double by 2050. Modern prostheses enable replacements of limbs lost to injury or disease. But people who lose functionality in an otherwise healthy arm or leg have had few options. A team of surgeons in Vienna, Austria, however, recently developed bionic reconstructions of the hands of 16 people who had lost manual control and sensation because of nerve damage. The catch: patients have to undergo a nonessential amputation of the damaged hand to make room for the prosthesis.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/disabled-hands-successfully-replaced-with-bionic-prosthetics/
