Monday, 28 Jun 2010
Touch Bionics is developing a clinical collaborator programme in North America that will see the company partner with practitioners in order to fit patients
Piano player Maria Eglesias, demonstrating bionic digits developed by Touch Bionics
Helping hand from the world’s first bionic fingers
The new digits can bend, touch, pick up objects, use a keyboard and have even helped some patients to write again. As many as 1.2 million people worldwide have missing fingers and thumbs because of infection, injury or birth defects - a loss that can limit their lives dramatically.
Hope has been given to such people across the globe by the commercial launch of the “super-prosthetics”, made of tough, lightweight plastic and containing tiny motors. Called ProDigits, they are the world’s first powered bionic fingers and made by Touch Bionics, a leading developer of advanced upper-limb bionic technologies in the UK.
New treatment option
Although people who have lost entire hands have been able to make use of prosthetic ones for many years, the options for those with less severe injuries have been limited until now. Researchers at Touch Bionics in Scotland said their breakthrough could help patients suffering the loss of up to five missing digits. The motorised digits let them perform everyday tasks such as using cutlery, tying knots, typing and playing computer games.
Not having fingers or a thumb to act in opposition to one another makes simple tasks such as holding a fork or a cup difficult and frustrating. Now, partial-hand patients have a dexterous powered system to support their return to function and independence. Before this, Touch Bionics says that amputees have had no commercially available, powered-prosthetic system on offer to them.
The ProDigits system capitalises on the brain’s determination to try to move a limb or finger, even when it is missing. By believing the digit is still there, the brain sends signals to the nerves and severed muscles. Electric sensors are attached to where the missing digit was. When the patient tries to move a lost digit, the gadget senses the muscle movement and sends a signal to the mechanical finger that then moves.
Pressure sensors on the pad are linked to a “stall” feature, causing the hand to stop when it closes around an object, to avoid crushing it. This feature allows people to drink from a glass without breaking it.
It is the device’s articulation that provides the biggest benefit to the patient. With the ability to do most normal movements, the ProDigits used within an overall prosthesis simulates the function of a natural hand.
Changing lives
Former concert pianist Maria Antonia Iglesias, from Spain’s Catalonia, had parts of both hands and both feet amputated after suffering a severe bacterial infection in 2003. Spain’s national health service paid for her to visit Scotland to have a ProDigits prototype fitted in 2008. The revolutionary prosthesis already provides Maria Antonia with functionality she previously struggled to achieve, such as writing, holding cutlery and drinking from a glass.
“I am very pleased to be part of this project and the benefits my new hand is giving me are like a dream,” said Ms Iglesias. “Even a simple thing like holding and lifting a glass of water to drink from was impossible before, but with ProDigits I can do it easily.” Perhaps most significantly, she is able to teach the piano again. “The hand has made a real change to my life.”
A company spokesman added: “The nature of each partial-hand patient case is unique and, therefore, each prosthetic build is also unique. The concept behind ProDigits is something never before commercially available in the prosthetics industry. Sockets are custom-designed and fabricated by clinicians to suit each individual’s specific needs.”
Phil Newman, ProDigits marketing director, said the invention would empower a group who were previously given little help. “There has been no solution like this for the partial-hand amputee community. The ProDigits provide a powered device with a grip and it has returned these people to a level of functionality and independence. It is supporting a community that has never had support before.”
UK life sciences opportunities
Because of the personalised nature of each ProDigits fitting, Touch Bionics is developing a clinical collaborator programme in North America that will see the company partner with practitioners in order to fit patients. Worldwide, Touch Bionics has established relationships and distribution channels in more than 40 countries to support the roll-out of ProDigits from Livingston, Scotland.
The technology comes at a cost - an average price of £35,000 to £40,000 pounds - but ProDigits hopes it may, one day, be available on the UK National Health Service. The device has already won the approval of patients in the US and in mainland Europe.