The first U.S. clinical trial of bionic arms for children produced on 3D printers launches today thanks to researchers at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and the team at Limbitless Solutions, a nonprofit based at UCF that creates bionic arms for children. “We hope our work will ultimately allow us to provide prosthetic arms […]
Limbitless’ myoelectric arms operate by using a pair of lead wires placed on the skin to activate the device when children flex their muscles. The devices can be produced at a hardware cost of less than $1,000 each in the lab at UCF. The latest version of the arm includes multiple motors and smartphone technology to improve a child’s ability to grip objects and use the arm for various gestures.
A Yearlong Clinical Trial
The clinical trial will recruit 20 children, primarily from the Southeast and the Pacific Northwest, to be fitted with Limbitless advanced custom-designed arms. The children will be taught to use the arms during the course of one year. Occupational therapy will be provided in Orlando and Portland as part of the study. The trial will test the functionality of the arms in children ages 6 to 17, gauge the effect on their quality of life and determine how children use the arms for specialized tasks.
The clinical trial will help determine whether the Food & Drug Administration would approve the arm for market clearance, which would enable the device to be covered by insurance. The Limbitless collaborators, which include surgeon and UCF College of Medicine Professor Juan Cendán, hope that this is the first of several trials across the nation that would establish a nonprofit model in which 3D printing technology provides custom-designed prosthetics for children who need them.
