Bionic arm restores sense of feeling

 This was article was posted by By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website

Advances in bionic hands have restored a sense of touch to two patients for more than a year, report US scientists.

The men can now delicately pluck the stalks out of cherries.

Sensors on the artificial hand are used to send signals directly to the nerves, the study, published in Science Translational Medicine, said.

One of the beneficiaries of the American work was Igor Spetic, who lost his right hand in an accident four years ago.

He was fitted with a bionic replacement, but it was incapable of feeling the world around him.

He had to carefully watch what he was doing and judge by eye whether he was squeezing too hard.

A team at Case Western Reserve University attached sensors to the bionic hand and in surgery fitted "cuffs" around the remaining nerves, which were capable of delivering electronic stimulation.

They then moved on to pressure and textures. Mr Spetic can tell, while blindfolded, whether he is handling different materials such as Velcro or sandpaper.

He has been using the sensing hand for two-and-a-half years. Another patient has been using the system for one and a half years.

Lead researcher Prof Dustin Tyler told the BBC: "They can do really fine delicate tasks now.

"We believe within five to 10 years we will have a system completely implanted so we would see a person in the morning, they would have the procedure to put electrodes on each nerve and a device for their pocket, so that when they turn it on they can feel their hands."

Mr Spetic said: "I would love to feel my wife's hand, just to hold hands would be the ultimate."