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| Imagem retirada de http://www.geekosystem.com/bionic-hands/ |
«In the Austrian capital Vienna, a young orthopaedic patient is getting used to a new bionic arm.
Patrick Mayrhofer lost his hand in an accident at work.
To make his new one function, surgeons transplanted a muscle from his leg into the artificial arm, where it is used to guide the prosthesis.
Patrick is now putting his new hand through its paces. The hand has six sensors fitted over nerves within the lower arm.
He had received severe electrical burns in the accident, and all feeling and movement in his arm had disappeared.
Patrick said: “I just had three digits on the left hand: a thumb, forefinger and middle finger and my hand didn’t work. I couldn’t move it. When I pinched or burned myself I didn’t feel it. And it felt like something that didn’t belong to my body, like something alien.”
He made the tough decision to have his useless hand removed by surgeons and replaced with the bionic substitute.
With several signals being read at the same time in the bionic arm, the patient can twist and flex the wrist back and forth, using the same brain impulses that would have driven similar movement in a real hand. He can now open a bottle and tie his own shoelaces.
Surgeon Oskar Aszmann said: “For a reconstructive hand surgeon this is a great feeling which you can’t really describe. For someone who knows what it means to pick up an ordinary pencil from a surface or grip a bottle, it’s a very satisfying feeling.”
Another young patient, who lost the use of his right hand in a motorcycle accident 10 years ago, is also waiting to get his bionic hand. Doctors in Vienna General Hospital are now receiving requests from around the world for similar procedures.
Copyright Copyright 2011 euronews» ( fonte: http://www.austria.com.ro/tag/impulses/)
Poucas são as tarefas que no nosso quotidiano não envolvam o uso da mão e do punho em movimentos que efectuamos com tal fluidez que até “nos esquecemos” da complexidade dos mesmos.
ResponderEliminarCrê-se que o equivalente aos dias de hoje de uma mão biónica remonte ao ano 218 a.C., tendo sido utilizada por Marius Sergius que perdeu a mão, sendo totalmente em ferro com polegar rígido em oponência com flexão dos restantes dedos, possuindo punho amovível (fonte: http://www.tdtonline.org/newsletter/arquivo/1_3-10/tdtonline_magazine.pdf).
Em 2005 um grupo de cientistas europeus envolvidos no projecto CyberHand desenvolveu uma mão que possuía 16 graus de liberdade accionados por apenas 6 motores minúsculos para flexão de cada dedo individualmente e reprodução exacta da oponência do polegar (fonte http://www.inovacaotecnologica.com.br/noticias/noticia.php?artigo=010180051130). As pessoas submetidas a tal intervenção passam à mesma por um processo de aprendizagem de controlo e movimentação da mão uma vez que terão de adquirir ou reforçar as vias neuronais envolvidas nesses processos.
Atendendo á evolução tecnológica e conhecimento fisiológico dos processos envolvidos nos movimentos que efectuamos, caminhamos para que cada vez mais as próteses se assemelhem tanto a nível funcional como estético à mão normal.
Susana F.
M2245
Concordo, mas já li melhores noticias neste blog...
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