IPRLS Meeting May Help Amputees Injured in Iraq War

Physicians and doctors from the United States and Russia presented their latest research and findings at the fourth annual meeting of the International Institute for Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine Survivors (IPRLS) June 18 at New England Sinai Hospital, Stoughton, Massachusetts.

"The IPRLS is a U.S.-Russian partnership program in prosthetics and rehabilitation that combines American technology with Russian expertise in treating land-mine injuries," according to IPRLS Founder and Director Mark Pitkin, PhD. "Our goal is to reduce amputations and save more lives."

Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers fighting in the Afghanistan war (1979-1989) returned home as amputees to face months of intensive rehabilitation, according to a press release from New England Sinai Hospital. Finding ways to provide them with specialized care ushered in a new era in Soviet amputee research and innovation in the fitting of prosthetic devices. U.S. troops injured in Iraq have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, mainly due to roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Now, the ongoing work of the IPRLS may benefit amputee soldiers returning from Iraq as well as civilian men, women, and children maimed worldwide by landmines every year.

The mission of the IPRLS, established in 1998 between the Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, and the Albrecht Center for Occupational Expertise, Prosthetics and Rehabilitation, St. Petersburg, Russia, is to contribute to international efforts of amputee rehabilitation through amputee studies and prosthetics research, and to assist amputees who otherwise would be unable to receive adequate prostheses because of residual limb complications. A long-term goal of the IPRLS is to make Russian methods and devices readily available in the United States for use by local physicians.

Greig Martino, CPO, president of United Prosthetics Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, was honored at the meeting with the IPRLS award for outstanding contributions to the U.S.-Russian program in prosthetic rehabilitation.

In 2000, Martino began his work as a teacher for prosthetists at the Albrecht Center and as an assistant coach for the first-ever U.S. amputee hockey team. The U.S. "All Stars" played the Russian "St. Petersburg Elks" May 10 in an effort arranged by the IPRLS as a new component of the international prosthetic rehabilitation program focusing on socio-economic reintegration of amputees.

IPRLS Meeting May Help Amputees Injured in Iraq War

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IPRLS Meeting May Help Amputees Injured in Iraq War

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