Area amputees are invited to experience the world's first bionic hand with five independently moving fingers at a free one-day evaluation clinic at Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics on Wednesday, June 3rd. Called the i-Limb, this revolutionary technology is the first prosthetic hand with "joints" that grasp objects, flex, and bend like natural fingers.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics, 23 Sunnybrook Road, Suite 185, Raleigh, NC 27610

Amputees interested in scheduling an appointment to try the i-Limb on June 3rd should call 919-231-3132.

Five individual motors power each finger, enhancing dexterity and allowing patients to do activities they were unable to do with previous prosthetic hands, such as shaking another person's hand and naturally grasping all the way around a steering wheel and other round objects such as a door knob, baseball, fishing rod, telephone receiver, computer mouse, drinking glass, etc. An embedded microprocessor uses sensors in the socket to read the myo-signals emitted from the remaining arm muscles in the patient's residual limb, moving the hand and fingers as commanded by the wearer.

The i-Limb was launched in the U.S. in July 2007 and is being fitted on wounded soldiers from the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. launch of the technology was featured nationally on ABC's Good Morning America, the CBS Early Show, and in USA Today. Only a few hundred amputees in the country have this new technology.

With 12 patient care centers in North Carolina, and more than 650 nationwide, the certified clinicians of Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics provide patients with the latest in orthotic and prosthetic solutions, including bionic and microprocessor devices for those with limb loss and neuromuscular technologies for those with paralysis due to stroke, MS and other debilitating conditions. For more information, visit www.hanger.com.