title: Electric versus pneumatic power in hand prostheses for children.
abstract: Most externally powered hand prostheses for children with a unilateral congenital below-elbow amputation are myoelectrically controlled. All of them are electrically powered. Despite the success of fitting children with this kind of prostheses, there are some disadvantages: prosthetic weight is high, operating speed is low, the system is vulnerable and its size prohibits fitting it to patients with a long fore-arm stump. It will be shown that pneumatic power can overcome most of these disadvantages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Plettenburg
mesh_terms: D001186:Artificial Limbs; D002648:Child; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D011474:Prosthesis Design