Walking like an Egyptian

Recently, the little brother of my close childhood friend and his family experienced a dramatic, life-altering event. While serving in the US Army as a Commanding Officer of the Army Rangers, my friend’s little brother became a double amputee while on tour in Afghanistan.1,2 After a few months, many surgeries, a lot of support, and a superb medical team, he is now walking on a pair of brand new (prosthetic) legs. This is due greatly in part to his determination, optimism, and of course prosthetic limb technology, as we know it today.

We are all familiar with what an athletic prosthetic looks like, today, thanks to the Olympic 2012 media coverage of South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius and his carbon fiber legs.3 But, what did prosthetic limb devices look like when they first emerged as a technology? Have there been significant changes in concept and design over this device’s history, even in the past 10 to 20 years?

Although quite advanced in design and purpose for their time, early prosthetic devices were quite primitive, especially when compared to the devices of today. Prosthetics have been archeologically traced back to the ancient Egyptians, dating 1295 B.C. to 664 B.C., in the form of a wood and leather toe prosthetic.4-6 Other primitive prosthetics, from around 300 B.C. to early 1500’s, were made from bronze and iron (think Captain Hook). Modern amputation procedures, and thus, the demand for prosthetic limbs, did not occur until mid-1500. Such prostheses had many state-of-the-art features that are now standard features in prosthetic limbs: fixed position, adjustable harness for the patient, and locking knee controls.

However, the real technological changes have only happened in the past 60 years. Prostheses did not begin resembling what we know them as today, until mid-1900, when The National Academy of Sciences established the Artificial Limb Program (a response to WWII veteran amputees). This program helped build up momentum of scientific advancement in prosthetic limb development, to what we know it as today and had its true pivotal point when IBM developed a prosthetic with external power. The 1960’s gave birth to a lot of groovy things, including a functionally moving prosthetic hand, which led to an entire working arm. Fast-forward around 30 years, to the late 1990’s. This is when the first Flex-Foot blades and the first microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee emerged onto the market. A major difference in the prostheses of today and yesterday is the use of materials and function features; prosthetic limbs of today use newer materials, such as carbon-fiber composites and plastics. Prostheses of today can mimic the appearance and function of the limb, as seen in the robotic prostheses that oddly and interestingly resemble The Terminator or RoboCop. Such robo-limbs can contain biosensors that detect signals from the nervous system or muscular systems, mechanical sensors that detect force, load, and position, and may even have an actuator that reproduces the actions of a muscle during movement. So, if this is what the past 60 years brought to prosthetic limb devices, what will the next 20 or even 10 years bring?

So, the next time you find yourself listening to The Bangles’, “Walk like an Egyptian,” think for a moment about what it really meant to walk like an Egyptian, with a wooden and leather prosthetic (or anyone with a primitive prosthetic for that matter), how they would walk with today’s spring-loaded and robotic prosthetics, how they will walk in the near future, and what this means for society.

I welcome your comments and feedback!

^_^ Rebecca

Sources:

1. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nathan-Rimpf-Support-Fund/443474555698010
2. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nathanrimpf/journal
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18911479
4. http://www.livescience.com/4555-world-prosthetic-egyptian-mummy-fake-toe.html
5. http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/08/03/33622/look-socal-prosthetics-give-athletes-olympic-chanc/
6. http://www.amputee-coalition.org/inmotion/nov_dec_07/history_prosthetics.html