prosthetics

Shaimaa Ali Ahmed, 12, lost her leg at age 6 after happening upon an unexploded rocket. Yemeni children like her bear an outsized burden from the civil war, where land mines and ordnance litter the landscape.

At Yemeni prosthetics clinic, the patients keep coming even though the war has slowed

7:15am August 04, 2023

The civil war in Yemen seems to be cooling off, but its deadly legacy of land mines will be felt for decades. At a prosthetics clinic near the the front line, children bear a disproportionate burden.

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Palestinian prosthetics technicians in Gaza prepare leg stump casts in the first step of building a prosthetic leg socket for young Palestinian amputees who lost a leg after being shot by Israeli troops during protests at the Gaza-Israel border.

World News

Inside Gaza's Factory Making Prosthetic Legs For Palestinian Protest Amputees

4:38pm November 02, 2018

As many as 75 Palestinians have needed a leg amputation after suffering Israeli gunshot wounds at Gaza border protests, according to the Artificial Limbs and Polio Center in Gaza City.

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Gabriel Zepeda (right) makes an all-terrain wheelchair. He's been making wheelchairs for low-income Mexicans for 27 years.

Mexico And U.S. Team Up To Create Low-Cost Wheelchairs

7:17am July 08, 2017

by Monica Ortiz Uribe

A retired U.S. doc and a Mexican engineer co-founded a nonprofit group that is providing wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs at an affordable price.

Each time a particular finger on a robotic hand is touched, a blindfolded Nathan Copeland "feels" as if his own finger were being touched, thanks to a brain implant. That sort of sensory feedback could help him hold a fragile object without crushing it.

Brain Implant Restores Sense Of Touch To Paralyzed Man

4:35pm October 13, 2016

by Jon Hamilton

A mind-controlled robotic arm has pressure sensors in each fingertip that send signals directly to a paralyzed man's brain. It's still experimental, but could eventually help thousands, engineers say.

Zhenan Bao, a chemical engineer at Stanford University, is working to invent an artificial skin from plastic that can sense, heal and power itself. The thin plastic sheets are made with built-in pressure sensors.

Just Like Human Skin, This Plastic Sheet Can Sense And Heal

3:46pm April 11, 2016

by Joe Palca

Human skin has properties that are hard to mimic, but a Stanford engineer is working to create a type of artificial skin that can sense, heal and generate its own power.

Engineers made the implant with a metallic 3-D printer that melts titanium powder.

Engineers Create A Titanium Rib Cage Worthy Of Wolverine

4:03pm September 15, 2015

by Michaeleen Doucleff

Doctors say it's the first time a titanium sternum and set of ribs have been made with a 3-D printer. The custom-made device has already been implanted in the chest of a cancer patient in Spain.

Teacher Kim Song Bo lectures at a new school that is training students to make prosthetic limbs. Classes are held at the Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

An Artificial Limb Can Bring Hope — But Who's Going To Make It?

8:50am July 23, 2015

by Amy Yee

That's the question in Bangladesh, where there aren't enough clinicians to make prosthetic devices for accident victims and others in need. Now there's a school to fill the gap.

Gary Walters demonstrates his self-cooling prosthetic.

Vet's Self-Cooling Prosthetic Could Help Amputees Beat The Heat

3:58pm November 12, 2014

by Eileen Pace

An Iraq war veteran has developed a better artificial leg with a cooling fan. Gary Walters says most prosthesis don't release heat, causing many amputees to stop wearing them.

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The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab created an electronic prosthetic hand and arm that has the same dexterity as a human arm. Electronic prosthetics are the biggest area of growth in this industry.

The Prosthetics Industry Gets A Human Touch

3:57pm November 12, 2014

by Samantha Raphelson

The prosthetics industry is rapidly growing, allowing patients to better customize their devices, control them using their nervous system, and even regain a sense of touch.