IMPACT OF UNILATERAL TRANSRADIAL PROSTHESIS IN UPPER LIMB UTILIZATION RELATIVE TO ABLE-BODIED CONTROLS: INSIGHTS FROM WIRELESS ACCELEROMETER DATA

Authors

  • Phillip Stevens
  • Binal Motawar
  • Kelli Buchanan
  • Scott Frey

Abstract

Hand loss profoundly impacts daily functioning. The use of an upper limb prosthesis can restore a measure of both unimanual and bimanual upper limb function for this population. We asked unilateral, transradial amputees (N=22) and healthy controls (N=20) to wear wireless accelerometers on their forearms and distal prostheses, as well as on their upper arms bilaterally to capture data over 3 days while the subjects were in their natural environments. Prosthesis users wore their devices an average of 11 hours/day. They exhibited heavier reliance on their sound side upper limb than on their affected limb. However, they were observed to engage in unimanual activity with their prostheses an average of 20 minutes/day compared to the 60 minutes of mean unimanual activity observed in the non-dominant extremity of control subjects. Bimanual activity among prosthesis users was recorded for an average of 4 hours/day compared to an average of 5 hours/day in the control population. While participants generally exhibited 70% reliance on their lower arm segment relative to their upper arm segment, on the affected extremity of the amputee participants, this reliance dropped to 50%, suggesting a need for greater upper arm activity to preposition the prosthesis in space. Upper arm accelerometers confirmed that engagement of the upper arm segment in upper limb amputees diminish when the prosthesis is removed. Collectively, this data begins to demonstrate the ability of transradial prostheses to preserve both unimanual and bimanual functionality. (This abstract focuses on a subset of previously published data from Frey S, Motawar B, Buchanan K, et al. Greater and more natural use of upper limbs during everyday life by former amputees versus prosthesis users. Neurorehabil Neur Rep. 2022;36(3):227-38).

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Published

2022-08-09

How to Cite

[1]
P. Stevens, B. Motawar, K. Buchanan, and S. Frey, “IMPACT OF UNILATERAL TRANSRADIAL PROSTHESIS IN UPPER LIMB UTILIZATION RELATIVE TO ABLE-BODIED CONTROLS: INSIGHTS FROM WIRELESS ACCELEROMETER DATA”, MEC Symposium, Aug. 2022.

Conference Proceedings Volume

2022: MEC22

Section

Clinical Research Studies