New Robotic Prosthetic Hands are Controlled by Patients' Minds

Robotic hands may not just be for Luke Skywalker anymore. Three Austrian men have become the first in the world to undergo a new technique called "bionic reconstruction," which enables them to use a robotic prosthetic hand controlled by their minds.

All three men suffered for many years with brachial plexus injuries and poor hand function as a result of motor vehicle and climbing accidents. But with this latest method, they are now able to manipulate objects with far more ease than they did before.

"In effect, brachial plexus avulsion injuries represent an inner amputation, irreversibly separating the hand from neural control," said Oskar Aszmann, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Existing surgical techniques for such injuries are crude and ineffective and result in poor hand function. The scientific advance here was that we were able to create and extract new neural signals via nerve transfers amplified by muscle transplantation. These signals were then decoded and translated into solid mechatronic hand function."

The patients spent about nine months undergoing cognitive training to activate the muscles and then use the electrical signals to control a virtual hand. Once they mastered the virtual environment, they practiced using a hybrid hand, which was a prosthetic hand attached to a splint-like device fixed to their non-functioning hand. Then, their non-functioning hand was amputated and three months afterward, the robotic prostheses gave all three recipients substantially better functional movement in their hands.

"So far, bionic reconstruction has only been done in our center in Vienna," said Aszmann. "However, there are no technical or surgical limitations that would prevent this procedure from being done in centers with similar expertise and resources."

This new method allows the patients to accomplish everyday tasks, greatly improving their quality of life.

The findings are published in the journal, The Lancet.

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