Amputee Life — Product News

Although the advancements in 3D printing have allowed prosthetists to custom-design affordable, lightweight, and highly functional prosthetic limbs for their patients, the materials used are often uncomfortable. Conventional 3D-printing materials tend to rub residual limbs the wrong way.

Last April, No Limbits founder Erica Cole joined ABC’s Shark Tank, with the goal of securing a $100,000 deal. Landing this deal would mean making the adaptive clothes accessible to more people. Cole’s pitch impressed the sharks, and she landed a $100,000 deal with Mark Cuban and Emma Grede.

Most unilateral lower-limb amputees have experienced the discomfort of having the body adjust to wearing a prosthetic leg, like making compensatory movements that lead to tight, aching muscles, lower back pain and expending more energy to walk. Ottobock’s Taleo Side Flex 1C58 is designed to address those concerns.

While most prosthetic technology developers are focused on creating the fanciest, high-tech prosthetic limbs, prosthetic users know that the simplest but most functional designs are the game-changers. This is where adjustable sockets, which allow users to alter their prosthetic limbs independently, come in.  

Most existing lower-limb prosthetic devices aren’t equipped to allow for mind-controlled balance or posture correction, increasing a prosthetic user’s chances of falling or making walking difficult. To solve this issue, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) funded researchers to work on a prosthetic ankle that can be controlled by a user’s residual muscles—and the electrical signals they generate.