Cost Effective Transradial Assistive Prosthetic Hand

As the number of amputees continues to grow in low resource settings, their demand for prosthetic devices continue to be unmet. Consequently, these amputees face exhausting physical, emotional and economic challenges like navigating unfriendly terrain, emotional trauma, loss of income, and social rejection on daily basis. While there have been attempts to meet this demand, the challenges in doing so are difficult and complex. Many organizations, including government and nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) and private entities are trying to deliver low - cost and durable prostheses to amputees. However, all of these organizations face a wide array of challenges related to infrastructure, technology and business in achieving this goal. Rehabilitation is the stepping stone to help an individual to start or return to his or her education, work and day-to-day living. In the context of prosthetic devices and amputees, rehabilitation has the potential to compensate for an amputee's lost limb (s) and sustain that function over a period of time. To improve the chances of successful and continued prosthesis use, rehabilitation should begin immediately after 3-4 week wound-healing phase following amputation and include training on proper use of prosthesis. The prosthetic device will then require maintenance over time and adjustments according to the patient's needs. Thus, for optimum use and comfort, the patient would need to travel a number of times to maintain his or her device. To compensate for these issues, it is preferable to make prosthesis affordable, locally accessible and able to be manually constructed and repaired and functional without being too technically advanced. Designing a prosthetic device specifically for amputees in developing countries is the key to widespread adoption of technology, which should be both low cost and culturally appropriate. Further work should examine not only the design of an appropriate prosthesis but also the methods by which it can be manufactured and distributed to reach the greatest number of users.