Breakthrough in prosthetic hand surgery

In a pioneering surgical procedure carried out at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, a patient with an amputated hand has become the first recipient of a prosthetic hand that provides tactile sensations and greater levels of dexterity.
Titanium implants were placed in the patient’s two forearm bones, from which electrodes to nerves and muscle were extended to extract signals to control a robotic hand and to provide tactile sensations. This new technology was developed in Sweden by a team led by Dr Max Ortiz Catalan at bone-anchored prosthetics specialist Integrum AB and Chalmers University of Technology, and it delivers richer and more reliable information by implanting electrodes in all remaining muscle in the stump. In this particular case sixteen electrodes were implanted in the patient. The new technology is an improvement on current prosthetic hands because by implanting electrodes in the nerves that used to be connected to the lost biological sensors of the hand, it’s possible to deliver sensations from the sensors of the prosthetic hand to the patient.