Friday, April 19, 2013

Free Mirror Therapy Offered to Boston Marathon Amputees to Relieve Phantom Limb Pain



End The Pain Project, a non-profit organization, has created a special outreach project offering Free Mirror Therapy to Boston Marathon Amputees who are experiencing Phantom Limb Pain. The sooner this therapy is experienced, the sooner the relief and healing begins. Out of respect, ETPP will not solicit these maimed.
 

So we urge you to share this information on Facebook and Twitter in the hopes that it will reach a Boston Marathon Amputee in need. To donate to this effective ETPP Outreach Project, click on http://endthepainproject.org/
.For further information contact info@endthepainproject.org. Thank you for your support.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Free Mirror Therapy for Boston Marathon Amputees





End The Pain Project is offering one-on-one Free Outreach Mirror Therapy for Boston Marathon Amputees.







 For further information contact info@endthepainproject.org. To donate to this special program, go to http://endthepainproject.org and click the 'Donate' button.

Out of respect for the victims, ETPP does not solicit patients. We urge you to share this information on Facebook and Twitter in the hopes that it will reach a Boston Marathon Amputee in need.

Thank you.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Mastering a $110,000 Mechanical Arm

Excerpt: On 11/26/12, James Dao of The New York Times reported on Cpl. Sebastian Gallegos of the Marines who is among a small group of upper limb amputees who have had a pioneering surgery, known as targeted muscle reinnervation, that amplifies nerve signals that control prosthetic arms. He wears a $110,000 robotic device with an electronic motor and sensors able to read signals from his brain. 

Of the more than 1,570 American service members who have had arms, legs, feet or hands amputated because of injuries in Afghanistan or Iraq, fewer than 280 have lost upper limbs. Their struggles to use prosthetic limbs are in many ways far greater than for those who have lost lower-limbs.

With myriad bones, joints and ranges of motion, the upper limbs are among the body’s most complex tools. Replicating their actions with robotic arms can be excruciatingly difficult, requiring amputees to understand the distinct muscle contractions involved in movements they once did without thinking.

Upper limb amputees must also cope with the critical loss of sensation. Touch, the ability to differentiate baby skin from sandpaper or to calibrate between gripping a hammer and clasping a hand, no longer exists.

For all those reasons, nearly half of upper limb amputees choose not to use prostheses, functioning instead with one good arm. By contrast, almost all lower limb amputees use prosthetic legs.

Further information is in the complete NY Times article.






Friday, November 2, 2012

'Brain Scrambler' Aids Phantom Limb Pain

Walter Reed Army Medical Center  is now using Calmare Therapy as one of its methods used to eliminate phantom pain for amputees.

This therapy uses a biophysical rather than a biochemical approach. A 'no-pain' message is transmitted to the nerve via disposable surface electrodes applied to the skin in the region of the patient's pain. The perception of pain is cancelled when the no-pain message replaces that of pain, by using the same pathway through the surface electrodes in a non-invasive way.

Calmare Therapy Video