The Motorika company, which specializes in the design and manufacture of hand prostheses, announced the implantation of electrodes into the peripheral nerve to create a sensitive feedback of hand prostheses with the human nervous system. This is the first such operation in Russia, according to the press service of the Skolkovo Foundation, of which the company is a resident.
The project, which was attended by the Medical Center of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) and the Zelman Skoltech Center for Neurobiology and Neurorehabilitation, is designed to solve the problem of phantom pain in patients with amputated limbs and provide tactile sensations from bionic prostheses.
“Neuromodulation is a potential treatment option for chronic pain, which can change non-adaptive neuroplasticity and strengthen the descending inhibitory pathways,” explained Arthur Biktimirov, a neurosurgeon at the FEFU Medical Center, an expert at the NTI Center for Virtual and Augmented Reality Neurotechnologies, Arthur Biktimirov. feedback. Mapping phantom sensitivity in the future will allow us to program the stimulation to specific parameters. “
Two people became volunteers for the experiment – a patient from the city of Lomonosov with two amputated arms expects to be able to feel fragile objects with prostheses after the operation, and a patient from Roslavl intends to solve the problem of phantom pain. During the operation, both volunteers received special electrodes for electrical stimulation installed on the nerves. Two weeks are devoted to training in how to work with bionic hand prostheses using the new system, and then specialists will set up individual parameters of nerve stimulation for each patient for the perception of pressure, pain, heat and cold with the prostheses.
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