{"id":399,"date":"2011-04-10T19:12:42","date_gmt":"2011-04-10T17:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=399"},"modified":"2011-04-10T19:23:35","modified_gmt":"2011-04-10T17:23:35","slug":"cosmetic-versus-functional-prosthetic-arms-comparison-of-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"Cosmetic versus functional prosthetic arms [comparison of activities]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Cosmetic arms aren&#8217;t as non-functional as you believe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The key issue for this article are these:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People frequently associate &#8216;cosmetic&#8217; or &#8216;passive&#8217; arms with &#8216;no action.<\/li>\n<li>People frequently associate &#8216;myoelectric arms&#8217; with most action and function.<\/li>\n<li>Whereas body powered arms are associated with outdated functionality that is considered crude.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Comparison of activities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over a \u00a0few hundred single actions were noted and evaluated performed by a total of 121 study participants [1].<\/p>\n<p><em>Stabilisation and support, <\/em><em>hold, balance<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Actually functional (AF) prostheses were used to perform an average of 16,8\u00a0stabilizing\u00a0actions compared with a number of 13,1 stabilizing manipulations using cosmetic (C) arms.\u00a0Support actions amounted to 1,9 (AF) versus 1,7 (C) actions &#8211; practically similar results.<\/p>\n<p>Holding actions were performed 0,2 times (AF) and &#8211; with the cosmetic arms &#8211; twice as often, 0,4 times (C). Use of prosthesis as balancing tool was done 0,75 times (AF) versus 1,62 times (C), almost twice as much.<\/p>\n<p>In real life, I use the cosmetic arm in a more reliable fashion than the functional prosthetic parts of the body powered arm to carry a food tray, for example. A metal hook provides less of a reliable support for carrying a tray than a flat rubbery and very sturdy silicone covered hand. To balance objects, a cosmetic arm provides a most reliable tool and to call that non-functional ignores the daily requirements for balancing, holding or stabilization.<\/p>\n<p><em>Push<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Pushing is used to switch lights off and on, to turn a radio or vacuum cleaner off or on. Push buttons are the most frequent target of my push actions, other than typing on a keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>An average of 4,3 (AF) versus 2,7 (C) actions were noted in this study. With that, the usual cosmetic hand may be a bit softer than mine &#8211; and I do find that the harder the terminal device, the\u00a0easier\u00a0and more inviting is it to use it for precision push operations.<\/p>\n<p>My favorite prosthetic part to wear for typing is a metal hook, followed by a gripper hook equipped with a pencil for better keyboard operation, followed by the cosmetic arm (which happens to be light as well as follow motion very precisely).<\/p>\n<p><em>Other actions<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Without surprise, absent manipulation options &#8211; grip, release, pull &#8211; are not done using cosmetic arms and hence cannot be compared. But due to absent manipulation functions, cosmetic arms are a lot more durable, break less often, last longer, and are a lot lighter in weight than so-called actively functional prostheses. Due to that I can wear a cosmetic arm for a lot longer than I can wear an actively functional arm.<\/p>\n<p>[1] An evaluation of the use made of cosmetic and functional prostheses by unilateral upper limb amputees. C. M. Fraser. Prosthetics and Orthotics International 1998 22:3, 216-223 &#8212; Read More: <a href=\"http:\/\/informahealthcare.com\/action\/showCitFormats?doi=10.3109%2F03093649809164486\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/informahealthcare.com\/action\/showCitFormats?doi=10.3109%2F03093649809164486<\/a> [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/files\/fraser1998cosmetic.pdf\">local<\/a>] (C) Prosthet Orthot Int<\/p>\n<pre>\u00a0\r\n\r\n@article{fraser1998,\r\n\r\nauthor = {Fraser, C. M.},\r\n\r\ntitle = {An evaluation of the use made of cosmetic and functional prostheses by unilateral upper limb amputees},\r\n\r\njournal = {Prosthetics and Orthotics International},\r\n\r\nvolume = {22},\r\n\r\nnumber = {3},\r\n\r\npages = {216-223},\r\n\r\nyear = {1998},\r\n\r\ndoi = {10.3109\/03093649809164486},\r\n\r\nURL = {http:\/\/informahealthcare.com\/doi\/abs\/10.3109\/03093649809164486},\r\n\r\neprint = {http:\/\/informahealthcare.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.3109\/03093649809164486}\r\n\r\n}<\/pre>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=swisswuff\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-size=\"large\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cosmetic arms aren&#8217;t as non-functional as you believe The key issue for this article are these: People frequently associate &#8216;cosmetic&#8217; or &#8216;passive&#8217; arms with &#8216;no action. People frequently associate &#8216;myoelectric arms&#8217; with most action and function. Whereas body powered arms are associated with outdated functionality that is considered crude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,60,23,8,61,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cable","category-cosmetic-arm","category-myoelectric","category-prosthetics","category-specifications-comparisons","category-support","wpcat-5-id","wpcat-60-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-61-id","wpcat-1-id"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 22:57:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}