Friday, May 1, 2015

Prosthetics or Tranplantations: What Could the Future Hold?


            As time passes we continue to make advancements in the medical field. We have reached a point where nearly anything seems possible. The study conducted by Slade on the myoelectric prosthetic hand is proof that with science the lives of people with specific needs can be met. Slade et al discussed: “There are at least 30 million people with amputations living in low-income countries, 80% of whom cannot afford prosthetic care… [these people] need a prosthetic hand that is not only functional but also affordable, easy to manufacture, and simple to maintain.” Earlier mechanical prosthetics have shown to work but they are limited in what they can do—the tact hand is able to grip a wide range of objects and allows the person utilizing it to pinch and grip small objects. What is most astounding about these prosthetics is the use of myoelectric signals from contracted muscles being picked up by electrodes signaling the individual fingers on the tact hand. The use of neuroscience is opening doors and immensely aiding those that have amputated limbs.
            In addition to this door being opened, there is word that a full body transplant may be possible in coming years. Ian Samper reports “Sergio Canavero, a doctor in Turin, Italy, has drawn up plans to graft a living person’s head on to a donor body and claims the procedures needed to carry out the operation are not far off.” This idea seems possible but there are millions of questions as to how this will work. There are so many things that can go wrong mentally and physically with the participant. If the surgery is unsuccessful there is an extremely high chance that the patient opting to be a part of the experiment would die as such a surgery has been performed before and failed. “In 1970, Robert White led a team at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, US, that tried to transplant the head of one monkey on to the body of another. The surgeons stopped short of a full spinal cord transfer, so the monkey could not move its body.” (Sampler) However, if such a feat was conquered and worked there would be endless possibilities for those paralyzed from the waist down.

Also if full body transplants were to become common, successful limb transplants would surely follow (currently limb transplants do not allow the recipient to gain full/most function). Of course there would be a lot of challenges awaiting medical professionals and scientists if this were the case. “The history of transplantation is full of cases where people hated their new appendages and had them removed. The psychological burden of emerging from anaesthetic with an entirely new body is firmly in uncharted territory” How would the connection between the donor appendage work on a recipients body? Would there be a psychological struggle to overcome and not liking one’s new limb? Many of these problems may be visible with mere prosthetics such as the tact hand. As with many handicaps individuals sometimes feel that society is attempting to “fix” them and refuse to use any prosthetics or “help” because they feel “broken”.  Using a prosthetic is also not for everyone, some may hate them as they feel odd using them. From a psychological and medical standpoint it can be said that prosthetics and other alternatives are the best option right now because transplantations—specifically body transplants “are an overwhelming project, the possibility of it happening is very unlikely,” Harry Goldsmith, professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, Davis, told the magazine.” (Sampler)

References:
P. Slade, A. Akhtar, M. Nguyen, T. Bretl. (2015). Tact: Design and performance of an open-source, affordable, myoelectric prosthetic hand. The International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle, WA.

Sampler, I. (2015, February 25). First Full Body Transplant is Two Years Away, Surgeon Claims. Retrieved April 30, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/25/first-full-body-transplant-two-years-away-surgeon-claim

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