Science / Medicine : Device Helps Amputees to ‘Feel’

Amputees who wear artificial feet can sense the floor with a new electronic device that was introduced last week by John Sabolich, president of the Sabolich Prosthetic & Research Center.

The system uses small pressure transducers implanted in the artificial foot to signal electrodes in the socket of the prosthesis. The electrodes in turn stimulate the skin of the limb stump and transmit sensation to the brain. The $1,400 electronic system is powered by a standard 9-volt battery and can be used by any lower-limb amputee, Sabolich said.

Sabolich said the invention might also have the potential to reduce, and even eliminate, so-called phantom pain in which amputees feel discomfort as if from the missing limb.

“It’s the most incredible thing,” said Holly Howard, an above-the-knee amputee from Tyler, Tex., who is one of 20 people testing the device so far. “For the first time in 10 years, I can feel my foot and know where it is.”