Defense Contracts for Prostheses Could One Day Benefit Civilians

Only a few years ago, Advanced Arm Dynamics Inc. was making artificial limbs for civilians. But today, the Redondo Beach-based company has a more high-profile client: the Pentagon.

Advanced Arm Dynamics, an 8-year-old company that makes advanced prostheses for upper body amputees, has been awarded more than $70 million in defense contracts in the last year to outfit wounded American soldiers returning from Iraq.

Some amputee soldiers fitted with the products are now able to return to combat duty.

The awards, including a $36-million contract the company announced Wednesday, are likely to greatly improve artificial hands and limbs for civilians as well as soldiers, company founder and President John Miguelez said.

Combat soldiers generally are young, athletic and healthy, so they are well suited to try new technologies that give amputees greater mobility and agility, he said.

The company, whose target market originally was civilians, began working with military amputees three years ago. Because of improved body armor and other protections, many soldiers in the Iraq conflict are escaping death but suffering lost limbs.

About 125 soldiers have since been treated at the company’s prosthetics program at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Miguelez said.

“They are rugged,” he said. “So it challenges us because they want to do so many things” despite their injuries.

A team of specialists from the company works with military surgeons and physical therapists once an amputee soldier arrives at the military hospital, tailoring limbs and hands to each patient.

Some are even able to return to combat, Miguelez said. “We work with the patients so they can learn how to work with a range of weapons using the prosthetics.”

The privately held company is working on electronically outfitted pieces that respond to slight muscle contractions in the remaining part of a patient’s limb. It has also teamed up with a Connecticut-based firm that helps make artificial limbs appear remarkably lifelike by using silicone and employing techniques similar to those used by special effects artists in television and movies.

Upper body prostheses haven’t advanced as quickly as replacements for lower limbs, experts say, because hand and arm functions are much more complex. Also, upper body amputees account for a small fraction of all amputees, less than 10% by some estimates. The biggest advancements in prosthetics technology have come during times of war.

“With every war, the government tends to put a lot of money into research and development,” said William Yule, a certified prosthetist and manager of a Hanger Orthopedic Group Inc. center in Downey. Hanger, the country’s largest prosthetic fitting company, with 600 facilities, was founded by James Edward Hanger, a Civil War amputee who whittled barrel staves to make himself an artificial leg.

Miguelez said advances made at Walter Reed would help civilian patients at the company’s four centers in Oregon, Texas, Iowa and Connecticut. He said military officials approached him to start the program at Walter Reed.

Officials at the military hospital did not return calls requesting comment.

The most recent contract will be paid over the next four years, Miguelez said. The company’s annual gross revenue ranges from $15 million to $18 million, and income from the military program represents a significant portion of its bottom line, he said.