FITTING AND OUTCOMES OF A BILATERAL SHOULDER DISARTICULATION AMPUTEE FOLLOWING TARGETED HYPER-REINNERVATION NERVE TRANSFER SURGERY

Abstract

to be controlled; yet there are fewer control signals remaining to control these multiple degrees-of-freedom. Traditional fitting of a shoulder disarticulation amputee with a myoelectric system uses 2-sites and sequential control. This can be tedious and slow. When an amputation has occurred, the musculature is gone, however, the nerves that controlled the arm remain. The goal of the targeted hyper-reinnervation nerve transfer surgery was to create additional sites using these nerves to allow simultaneous control of multiple movements using more natural control schemes [1,2,3]. Following an experimental nerve transfer procedure, 4 new myoelectric signals were created on the left pectoralis muscle for a single bilateral shoulder disarticulation (BSD) amputee using nerves that previously controlled hand and elbow function. Subsequent prosthetic fitting found that the user was able to operate the elbow and hand in a coordinated fashion and various outcome measurements showed and improvement in prosthetic function.