Prosthesis With Sensations

Amputation Clinical Trial

Official title: Restoration of Sensations From the Lost Limb to Amputees for Fall Avoidance, Regular Walking, Phantom Limb Pain Diminishment and Embodiment of Prosthesis

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

Lower limb amputees suffer complete lack of sensory feedback of current available prostheses, which excludes the central nervous system from the correct sensory-motor integration. It causes serious problems as: falls due to unexpected perturbations, asymmetric walking, low mobility, higher power consumption, feeling the prosthesis as a foreign body, high cognitive burden, and phantom limb pain occurrence.

Investigators will provide amputees with a prosthesis restoring sensory feedback and will assess its benefits on the users.

Clinical Trial Description

The clinical investigation described here aims at evaluating the benefit of a lower limb prosthesis providing sensory feedback (bidirectional prosthesis), in selected transfemoral amputees. The device is constituted by i) Rheo Knee XC, Pro Flex foot and customized socket/liner structure from OSSUR. Rheo Knee embedded already an encoder coupled with a Bluetooth unit, which is used to make communication with devices external to the knee itself; ii) nerve stimulating system constituted by implantable intraneural electrodes from IMTEK, iii) an external neurostimulator from AXONIC, and iv) sensorized sole from SensArs Neuroprosthetics to apply under the prosthetic foot and driving the stimulating system. The readout of the sensorized insole are transmitted via Bluetooth, together with the encoder readout, to an external controller, which transduces it in parameters of stimulation. These parameters are sent to the stimulator, which injects current into the intraneural electrodes. As final result, the subject perceives sensory feedback from the prosthesis when using it.

Investigators call SENSY the sensory feedback restoration system. The subjects will use the prosthesis with and without sensory feedback to execute walking tasks. The average change of kinematics (including falls), metabolic cost, embodiment, and cognitive burden (EEG) when intraneural stimulation is provided will be compared to the case in which there is no sensory feedback. Standard clinical tests (as PEQ and CB&MS) will be executed with and without sensory feedback. Also, when the subjects will report attacks of phantom pain, they will undergo a 10-minutes-stimulation session. Only stimulation without prosthesis is used in this intervention.

Finally, imaging of the cortical activity will be executed through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This procedure will be only observational since no prosthesis or sensory feedback will be used by the subjects. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Amputation
• Phantom Limb
• Phantom Limb Pain
• Sensory Deficit

• NCT number: NCT03350061
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Clinical Centre of Serbia
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: November 12, 2017
• Completion date: July 14, 2020