Using Ultrasound Diagnostic Device for Fitting Myoelectric Prosthesis in Infants with Congenital Upper Limb Deficiency

Abstract

When fitting an infant with the first myoelectric prosthesis, finding an appropriate location and orientation for the myoelecrode to gain adequate signal at muscle contraction is troublesome.
Palpating the small muscle bulge in the short residual limb at short contraction without interactive communication is not easy and searching the location on the arm moving the sensor while watching the myoelectric signal on the screen is an overloaded task.
Diagnostic ultrasound B-mode image is a convenient and safe technique to visualize normal and pathological muscle and other anatomical variety in real-time in a non-invasive manner.
Since 2017, we are successfully using ultrasound diagnostic device (UD) for arranging the electrodes. UD is effective and useful at practice situation, since the dynamic visual feedback of the muscle contraction allows to easily and reliably locate the electrode location over the target muscle.
Diagnostic ultrasound should also be a good visual feedback system to train or detect proper signal strength from limb deficiency patients.