title: Reflections on the present and future of upper limb prostheses.
abstract: Despite progress in research and media attention on active upper limb prostheses, presently the most common commercial upper limb prosthetic devices are not fundamentally different from solutions offered almost one century ago. Limited information transfer for both control and sensory-motor integration and challenges in socket technology have been major obstacles. By analysing the present state-of-the-art and academic achievements, we provide our opinion on the future of upper limb prostheses. We believe that surgical procedures for muscle reinnervation and osseointegration will become increasingly clinically relevant; muscle electrical signals will remain the main clinical means for prosthetic control; and chronic electrode implants, first in muscles (control), then in nerves (sensory feedback), will become viable clinical solutions. After decades of suspended clinically relevant progress, it is foreseeable that a new generation of upper limb prostheses will enter the market in the near future based on such advances, thereby offering substantial clinical benefit for patients.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurorehabilitation Engineering, Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology Göttingen, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience , Georg-August University of Göttingen , Göttingen , Germany.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Farina
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurorehabilitation Engineering, Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology Göttingen, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience , Georg-August University of Göttingen , Göttingen , Germany.|b Department of Translational Research , Otto Bock Healthcare Products GmbH , Vienna , Austria.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amsüss
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D034941:Upper Extremity
keywords: EMG; hand; limb amputation; myocontrol; prosthesis; robotics; sensory-motor interaction