Prosthetic technology has come a long way since the days of fictional characters like Captain Ahab of Moby Dick. Captain Ahab's peg leg was a simple wooden stick that replaced the part of his leg that was bitten off by the shark. Today in the United States many people with disabilities have access to more sophisticated and refined ways to simplify their lives. Although controversial, stem cell research and other technologies promise even more good news for the future.

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that renew themselves for long periods through cell division. Under certain experimental conditions, stem cells can be made to develop special functions, such as replacing the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. This might help people with diabetes. In addition to this function, stem cell research may become the basis for treating health issues including Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, Purkinje cell degeneration, Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and vision and hearing loss.

Despite the potential positive effects, stem cell research is very controversial. Opponents believe that stem cells, which are harvested from human embryos, destroy the embryos. It is equated to the destruction of human life. Proponents of stem cell research counter with the notion that stem cells are not embryos and that research using cells derived from human embryos is separate from the destruction itself.

Stem Cell Research & Amputees

For amputees, the news is even better. The trend is for scientists and prosthetists to continue discovering new ways of building better-acting and reacting feet, hands, knees and legs. Because each amputee - whether she has an upper or lower extremity amputation - is different; the one-size-fits-all mentality does not work. Each individual is unique. People's needs vary with age, strength and mobility. For example, the process of Osseo integration - a surgical procedure that increases the comfort and wearability of prostheses - may someday make it possible to avoid the prosthetic socket altogether. Rather than attaching prostheses to a limb with a socket, in Osseo integration the limb is attached to the prosthesis by inserting a titanium bolt through the patients' skin and bone. The prosthesis is then attached directly to the implant through an abutment (a part of a structure that sustains thrust or pressure). The important thing to note here is that bone integrates with the titanium components, rather than rejecting the element, as it does with other materials.

Other New Technologies

For people who have vascular disease, laser angioplasty is a promising new technology. As is the case with the some people who have vascular disease, a traditional bypass or balloon angioplasty does not work. This is because the arteries in those who have vascular disease are already blocked in so many places and are so small, that surgeons have little access into and through the arteries. Another problem is that the arteries do not remain open for long periods of time.

Laser Angioplasty, however, allows the surgeon to install a small guide wire through the leg. A fiber-optic catheter is then placed over the guide to the site of the blockage(s). When the surgeon finds a blockage, she presses a foot pedal, emitting energy through the fiber-optic threads in the catheter. This helps to move the plaque in the artery forward, immediately restoring blood to the area. Although the process is still in its infancy, researchers hope it will help people avoid amputations.

Limb transplantation is another procedure that holds much promise for those who have lost a limb. Although the research is still not perfected - only a few hand transplant surgeries have been performed successfully - the future remains bright. The first hand transplant was performed in Ecuador in 1964. That operation failed, however, because of the primitive immuno-suppressive agents then in use. That patient's body rejected the hand within two weeks.

The second attempt, which occurred in France in 1998, also failed. That hand was removed two years later at the patient's request. The first successful hand transplantation occurred in the U.S. in 1999 at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville. Although the patient experienced several episodes of rejection, each rejection was resolved with treatment. From 1999 through 2000, hand transplants were performed in China, France, Australia, Malaysia and Italy. From a dubious beginning, the majority of these later hand transplantation patients continue to maintain their transplanted hands.

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