Restoring Tactile sensations via neural interfaces for real-time force-and-slippage closed-loop control of bionic hands.

Despite previous studies on the restoration of tactile sensation on the fingers and the hand, there are no examples of use of the routed sensory information to finely control the prosthesis hand in complex grasp and manipulation tasks. Here it is shown that force and slippage sensations can be elicited in an amputee subject by means of biologically-inspired slippage detection and encoding algorithms, supported by a stick-slip model of the performed grasp. A combination of cuff and intraneural electrodes was implanted for eleven weeks in a young woman with hand amputation, and was shown to provide close-to-natural force and slippage sensations, paramount for significantly improving the subject's manipulative skills with the prosthesis.

Common and specific gait patterns in people with varying anatomical levels of lower limb amputation and different prosthetic components.

The present study's aim was to identify the kinematic and kinetic gait patterns and to measure the energy consumption in people with amputation according to both the anatomical level of amputation and the type of prosthetic components in comparison with a control group matched for the gait speed. Fifteen subjects with unilateral transtibial amputation (TTA), forty with unilateral transfemoral amputation (TFA) (9 with mechanical, 17 with CLeg and 14 with Genium prosthesis) and forty healthy subjects were recruited. We computed the time-distance gait parameters; the range of angular motion (RoM) at hip, knee and ankle joints, and at the trunk and pelvis; the values of the 2 peaks of vertical force curve; the full width at half maximum (FWHM) and center of activity (CoA) of vertical force; the mechanical behavior in terms of energy recovery (R-step) and energy consumption.

Artificial Sphincters to Manage Urinary Incontinence: A Review.

Urinary incontinence affects more than 300 million people worldwide. The implantation of a medical device called an artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) is the gold standard treatment when conservative and minimally invasive therapies fail. In this article, the AUSs (extra-urethral and endo-urethral sphincters) available on the market, both presented at the research level and filed as patents, are reviewed.

An international age- and gender-controlled model for the Spinal Cord Injury Ability Realization Measurement Index (SCI-ARMI).

Background. A quadratic formula of the Spinal Cord Injury Ability Realization Measurement Index (SCI-ARMI) has previously been published. This formula was based on a model of Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM95), the 95th percentile of the SCIM III values, which correspond with the American Spinal Injury Association Motor Scores (AMS) of SCI patients.