Negotiating the New World of Upper-Limb Prostheses

It has taken two wars, innumerable improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and thousands of injured servicemen and women to push prosthetists forward in the management of upper-limb amputations. The terminal device has undergone a metamorphosis from rubber bands to microprocessors. The new generation of electronic hands emulates the delicacy and the rigor of a human grip while maintaining their robotic “purrs.” These anatomically correct hands can have grip patterns programmed to patient-specific tasks with multiple control schemes, which add to their versatility and applications. Finally, they can be covered with a silicone skin that imitates the real morphology of the hand.