The Influences in the Advancements of Prosthetics

Prosthetics has always been part of most of our history, and it has come a long way since then. Forms of prosthetics date way back to the Civil War, and has made a lot of progress throughout the years. During the Civil War, many soldiers would have to be amputated everyday to save their lives. For example, in the text “I Will Not Get Out of Heart Yet,” it states that “Soldiers shot in the arm or leg on the battlefield were highly likely to develop potentially fatal infections, and the only way to prevent a painful death was to cut off the damaged body part.” Despite this fact, prosthetics were extremely uncomfortable to wear and were considered “crude contraptions” and “ were usually made of wood or steel --- that were awkward and painful to wear.” Many soldiers did not like having prosthetic limbs, as they were uncomfortable to wear and awkward to move around with.

Documents dating back to 3500 B.C. detail the use of prosthetics. Besides the functionality a limb proposes, many believed the missing limb would not allow for the person to be whole in the afterlife (Thurston, 2007). The many primitive prosthetics used in the B.C. era were to aid in gross motor movements and offered little help with fine motor movements.

One positive impact that bionics can have is reducing or eliminating the amount of pain that users experience.Many prostitutes can be painful on the skin. With the new future technology the limb can be directly placed on the bone and not to the skin. The article The Insane and Exciting Future Of The Bionic Body states that “Herr envisions a future where prosthetics

The timeline of prosthetics extends far. As humans, we are very adaptable. A person can lose a hand or leg and learn how to do most of same things they could do before but to make things easier, artificial body parts were invented. Some of the earliest prosthetics were peg legs and hook hands which were very common for those who could afford them. Then, the Renaissance (1400s-1900s), copper, iron, steel, and wood were very common during this time period. As generations pass, plastics, polycarbonates, resins, and laminates were introduced as light, alternatives to wood and leather. Our generation, has advanced prosthetics the most thanks to new technologies and the improvement of materials. Prosthetic design has advanced to highly specialized

With advancements in technology, amputees will be able to have legs that are equal to their non-amputee competitors. New materials such as thermal plastics and composites are being used in order to make the prosthetics lighter and stronger. Microprocessors are an integral part of the future of lower limb prosthesis. Joe McTernan, a member of the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association, explained, “With microprocessor technology, electrodes are placed over the socket of the limb and the patient is trained that when they flex certain muscles, it sends a signal to the motor to do a specific motion” (Alvarez 1). This allows the amputee to have more control over their limbs when sprinting. There are other ideas for advancement that have not been tested yet. Permanent prosthetic limbs would be ideal because the athlete would not have to worry about their legs detaching during a race. They also would not have to waste their time and money on multiple prosthetic legs. A stronger, durable, and permanent prosthetic leg would be a life-changing invention. New designs are being created in an effort to find the best prosthetic leg. The ‘c-shaped’ and ‘j-shaped’ legs seem to be the most successful, but future advancement may determine that a replica of the human foot works better. Scientists continue to work tirelessly in an effort to create equal opportunities for athletic amputees to be

The National Academy of Sciences established the Artificial limb Program in 1945. The program was created in response to the abundance of World War II veteran amputees. These veterans had limited options; crude, wooden or metal prostheses. For those who chose none their life was confined to a wheelchair or a bed. As time passed, new improvements were developed to provide not only comfort to the amputees, but to help them control and use the limbs better to improve their quality of life. For many years wood was the dominant material for a prosthesis, but over the last 20 years materials have emerged to give greater comfort and confidence for amputees.

There are over two million amputees in the United States. An amputee is someone who lost or had a limb surgically removed. This can also be caused by birt defects and injuries. The first fake limb was created and used in the Middle Ages. Fake limbs have come a long way since the Middle Ages. The artificial limbs that are going are going to be talked about in this essay are legs, arms, and feet. There are many more artificial limbs though

Many disabled people today live in a world where they are seen as incapable of completing normal daily tasks. Life is a struggle however they can’t do anything else but to carry on. The future of bionic body parts could indefinitely enhance a disabled person’s life. It would allow for them to be more mobile/active, and within that, gain many health benefits to securing a longer and healthier life. At a conference session discussing the future of robotic, a speaker called Harding showed his exoskeleton work in progress. It allowed a paraplegic man to simply stand up and walk with a little bit of aid. In future, products like this could allow paraplegics to get up and walk completely by themselves. This would have a positive impact on physical and mental health (Gibbs, 2015). A future product like this will benefit a diverse group of injured people, whether it’s military injuries or car accident injuries. At this present time, society faces a major problem with organ donations. More people are on an organ transplant list than what is going around, and every year lots of those people die before they get a transplant. Our future body parts made with advanced technology such as computer-aided jet-based 3D tissue engineering would solve this problem. Less people would be dying and more would be living longer. With these positive aspects does come some negative

I have studied a lot about robotics in general, but robotic induced Prosthetics is a field I want to go in to, but I have not worked on that much. In relation to Robotic prosthetics, my greatest strength of knowledge is its history. The first

Prosthetic limbs have gotten much more advanced than the peg leg you see a pirate donning in a stereotypical Hollywood portrayal. They have advanced most noticeably in the past decade. The materials they are constructed from have gotten better, and they are becoming smarter and thus enabling greater dexterity and control on the part of the user. Many of them contain basic robotics elements and microchips. There is a foot from a company in Iceland that actually enables the wearer to feel sensations when pressure is applied against it such as when walking. The latest breakthrough is a bionic hand that gives the wearer the closest experience to a natural hand in terms of the movements and motions that can be made with it.

Prosthetic limbs have been around for centuries, but what is one thing they all have in common? They have all been a nuisance. In recent years technology of the modern day Prosthesis has ventured to new heights, but they have not perfected an artificial limb yet. With the amount of people in need of prosthetic limbs, the demand for a perfect prosthesis is tremendous. The perfect prosthesis shouldn’t feel or even look like an artificial limb. Prosthetics should go unnoticed throughout the rest of the amputee’s life.

My aptitude has caused me to pursue a career in biomechanics, specifically prosthetics. The main reason why I want to design prosthetics is because I aspire to help reduce the disadvantages that people face because they have lost a body part either when they were born or through a traumatic experience. I made this realization when I was distributing hygiene kits, which caused me to appreciate what I had and to think about how I could offer them more. I also think that I would like to study biomechanics in order to reduce the injuries that athletes and adults receive by observing common accidents and how the damage can affect how the body part continues to function. I cannot wait to simulate lifelike movement in robots by learning from

When handling both adult and pediatric amputees, it is obvious that there are numerous similarities and differences as well in treating these age groups. Physical abilities taught to children and adults are somehow similar (Peregrine, 1992). In addition, the basic components of the prosthesis and the essential elements of postoperative care are also similar as to those adults. However, children are smaller than adults; the options for components are not broad as with adults. On the other hand, there

As the number of service members grows, more veterans are experiencing limb losses because of combat-related injuries. Even though these injured soldiers receive prescriptions for an artificial limb replacement, many of them choose not to wear their prosthetic devices as they are unreliable, uncomfortable, or painful to wear. Poorly fitted prosthetics, limited flexibility, and lack of ability to replicate sensations are some of the factors negatively affecting adaptation to and subsequent use of prostheses (Martino, 2014). Many veterans with limb amputations suffer from neuropathic pain which often stops them from wearing prosthetics as they do not want to feel additional pain (Karcz, 2016). Some veterans

such as static prosthesis, simple artificial limbs like peg legs which do not enable the person