Enter End The Pain Project as your favorite nonprofit on eBay in November

 For the month of November eBay will be hosting a sweepstakes where everyone who selects to follow their favorite nonprofit will be entered to win a $2500 eBay gift card for them, plus eBay will make a $2500 donation to their selected Nonprofit.

University of Leicester Insect Study could help boost biomechanical prosthetic limb development

Photo ©Tom Matheson

University of Leicester study shows insects can move without muscles using ‘clever biomechanical tricks’.

Neurobiologists from the University of Leicester have shown that insect limbs can move without muscles – a finding that may provide engineers with new ways to improve the control of robotic and prosthetic limbs.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, helps to explain how insects control their movements using a close interplay of neuronal control and ‘clever biomechanical tricks’.

Research shows that the structure of some insect leg joints causes the legs to move even in the absence of muscles. So-called ‘passive joint forces’ serve to return the limb back towards a preferred resting position.

The passive movements differ in limbs that have different behavioral roles and different musculature, suggesting that the joint structures are specifically adapted to complement muscle forces. The researchers propose a motor control scheme for insect limb joints in which not all movements are driven by muscles.

Dr Tom Matheson, from the Department of Biology at the University of Leicester led the research and said he hoped the research on locusts and grasshoppers would “spur a new understanding of how limbs work and can be controlled, by not just insects, but by other animals, people, and even by robots”.

ETPP Mirror Therapy Workshop Focuses On Cardiovascular Amputees

Vascular Amputee uses Mirror

A recent Mirror Therapy Training Workshop at Holy Family Hospital, Vancouver, B.C.  for thirteen staff members focused on Mirror Therapy for Cardiovascular amputees.

A physiotherapist at Holy Family noted that her cardiovascular amputee clients usually suffer less intense pain in their phantom limbs than clients who were involved in a traumatic accident, perhaps because they do not carry a 'frozen' image connected to their phantom limb. 

The volunteer, a recent below knee amputee had been experiencing disruptive sleep because of phantom pain. Further investigation determined that he sensed his foot and toes contracted into his knee stump, a situation which would have complicated the mirror therapy treatment. 

Working as a team, the trainer and amputee brought the phantom limb down to the level of the intact limb. This adjustment will also help balance when learning to walk with a new prosthetic.

If neuropathy is evident in the 'intact' foot of a cardiovascular amputee, it may present further complications. A possible solution is for the client to wear a plain sock on the intact foot so that the mirror image limb is believable. 

 

New Research on Neurological Signals to Control Lower-Limb Prostheses

Researchers from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, and the University of Houston, Texas, have joined forces on a new, four-year, $1.2 million collaborative project to use neurological signals to control lower-limb prostheses and create a prototype device. Their work is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

In recent years, researchers have developed powered prosthetic devices that use internal motors to improve the motion of the artificial limb. The goal of the NSF project is to improve the connection between the prosthesis and the person using it with sensors to pick up the neuromuscular control signals from residual muscles in the area where the prosthesis is connected to its user. The aim is to develop an algorithm that translates those neuromuscular signals into machine language that will control the powered prosthesis—making it easier for the user to move seamlessly from standing up, to walking across the room, to climbing the stairs.

The team also plans to build a prototype powered prosthesis that incorporates the new technology and will be exploring ways to use neurological signals from the brain to control prosthetic legs.

This is important for patients who have little or no residual muscle in the area of the missing limb because that lack of muscle makes it difficult to pick up neuromuscular signals. In those cases, signals picked up directly from the brain may be able to control the prosthesis.

Mirror Therapy Introduced To Bosnia

Bosnian Health Professionals

Though the war in Bosnia ended more than twenty years ago, there are still many amputees left who experience debilitating phantom limb pain.

To address this wide-scale problem, five Mirror Therapy workshops were presented in Bosnia during September '13 by Moira Judith Mann, co-founder of End The Pain Project .

The workshops marked the beginning of certified health professionals training other health professionals in Bosnia, with the expectation that Mirror Therapy will eventually reach amputees suffering phantom limb pain throughout the Balkans.

Training with mirror

Two workshops were held at Hope87 headquarters in Sarajevo, arranged by Dr. Amira Karkin-Tais and Dr. Murid Muftic and coordinated by Zana Karkin and Ivana Vujasin of the NGO. Fifteen health professionals received ETPP certificates of completion, which enables them to teach the therapy to other health professionals.

In Banja Luka, two workshops were presented to sixteen staff members of the ZFMR Rehabilitation Hospital through the cooperation of Dr. Natasa Tomic, ZFMR's Medical Director.

Banja Luka amputee using mirror

A workshop presented directly to amputees suffering phantom limb pain was held at the Organization of Amputees UDAS in Banja Luka, organized by Nikola Zec. The results were astounding and included the unfurling of phantom fingers by an amputee who had been experiencing a phantom clenched fist for twenty years after a device exploded in his hand.

Jasmin Avdovic, Physiotherapist/Occupational therapy practitioner, introduced Mirror Therapy training as an idea for future to 260 fellow physiotherapist members of UFFBiH in October, at their 1st Annual Congress. Participants from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia responded to it with great interest due to high number of people with amputation, especially in Bosnia. He and others mentioned in this post plan to spread the benefits of Mirror Therapy through pan-Balkan workshops.

Targeted Muscle Reinnervation Improves Control of Prosthetic Devices for Amputated Arms

End The Pain Project's X-Border Wine Benefit A Success!

Jim Byrnes, Blues Guitarist

On August 10, 2013, residents of Point Roberts WA, a small resort town on the Juan de Fueca Strait, came out in droves to attend End The Pain Project's X-Border Wine Benefit and to enjoy the legendary blues guitar of Jim Byrnes.

Funding raised at this bi-annual event is dedicated to presenting Mirror Therapy Training Workshops in Bosnia this September and additional mirrors for amputees in central Vietnam.

A highlight of the benefit was Co-Founder Madeleine Anderson explaining the intricacies of Mirror Therapy to a rapt audience.

 

End The Pain Project acknowledges the support and generosity of its neighbors and the extraordinary efforts of volunteers who helped to make the Benefit a success.