Robotic hand to paralytic patients’ aid

| | BHUBANESWWAR | in Bhubaneswar

Shifa Khan, a student of Swami Vivekananda National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research (SVNIRTAR) at Olatpur in Cuttack district, has succeeded in developing a robotic hand for stroke patients.

The prototype developed by Shifa, a Master of Physiotherapy (MPT) student under the guidance of Dr PP Mohanty, Dr Monalisha Patnaik and her husband Faisal Ahmed Sheikh in collaboration with Eidetic InfoTech Private limited, has already been tried on persons with Hemiplegia successfully in the last two years.

Hemiplegia occurs due to brain stroke usually paralyzing one side of the body. The upper limb is more affected than the lower limb and the hand function is worst affected, said Shifa.

The robotic hand has been found to be quite effective in restoration of the hand-function in the management of persons with hemiplegia, she ascertained. The hand is not only simple to operate but also cost effective, she added.

“It is made up of an embedded controller and a robotic hand module, which provide patients with assistive power to perform hand movements and gradually boost relearning in the brains of stroke patients,” said Khan. According to her, once the robotic hand is attached to the patient’s fingers and hand, it begins to detect his or her intention to move through signals from the hemiplegic side measured by surface electromyography. A nerve response then sets the robotic hand in motion to move the patient’s stiff hand at his or her own will. The device affords substantial flexibility, as each finger assembly can be adjusted to fit different finger lengths, Shifa said.

Unlike the case with conventional rehabilitation treatment, the assistive power from the robotic hand helps to overcome muscle and joint stiffness, thus allowing the patient to open/close a paralysed hand or pick items up according to his or her own intention.

Through repetitive exercises, the hand motions send feedback to the patient’s brain, helping it to rewire itself in response to new experiences, she informed.