Prosthetic Limbs: Helping You Regain Your Lost Strength

Losing a limb is one of the most torturing and distressing phase of life. Not only does it affects the mental status of the person but also puts a question mark on his appearance and capabilities. However, prosthesis have helped many people who have lost their limbs by giving them a chance to get back to their movement again and bring them back the lost mobility. Prosthesis not only brings back the body movement but also boosts the self confidence and help them recover from the mental illness that losing a limb caused to them. There are many renowned people who have gone through prosthesis the most successful example being Oscar Pistorius also known as  “Blade Runner” who lost his legs and is now running on ‘Cheetah Flex-Foot Carbon Fiber Transtibial Artificial Limbs.

There are two different categories into which leg prosthetics is divided first “BK” and second “AK.” “BK” is known as the below knee Prosthetics or Transtibial and “AK” as Above the knee or Transfemoral Prosthetics.

• Different Types of Artificial Limbs:

Artificial limbs are categorized into four different types namely, Transfemoral, Transhumeral, Transradial and Transtibial prostheses. What type of prostheses will your body need depends on the missing limb. For general information let us just know different types of prosthesis and their areas of application:

• Transhumeral Prosthesis: Transhumeral Prosthesis is done to people who do not have an arm above the elbow. It helps you by attaching an artificial limb so that you can bring it back into action doing all the daily activities, but, bringing the arm back into motion will need time as, a lot of strength is needed to coordinate the movement of both the limb and the prosthetic limb.

• Transradial Prosthesis: To restore the arm that has gone missing below the elbow surgeons do a Transradial Prosthesis. There are two different types of Transradial prosthetics available:

• Myoelectrics arms
• Cable operated limbs: It works by connecting a cable and a harness attached to the opposite shoulder of the arm that is damaged. When the artificial limb senses any change through the attached electrodes the limb operates by making the artificial limb close or open.

• Transfemoral Prosthesis: Amputees suffering from missing leg above the knee have to undergo a Transfemoral Prosthesis. After the Prosthesis, it takes almost eighty percent of the energy of the amputee to get back to the normal movement. The reason why it takes so much time is because of the intricacy of design and knee movement. The advanced designs have been making use of carbon fiber, hydraulics, microprocessors, motors, mechanical designs and linkages that aims at offering more controlling power to the amputee.

Transtibial Prosthesis: Transtibial Prosthesis adds the limb missing above the knee. It gives you an assurance of regaining the movement faster than Transfemoral Prosthesis.