Study of the Social and Professional Reintegration Improvements Using a Set of Solutions for Upper Limb Amputation

Plain-language summary

ORTHOPUS develops assistive technologies to address the lack of availability of medical devices in low and middle income countries. With the help of HI (Handicap International) Nepal, the need for upper limb prostheses was identified. Indeed, according to the literature - especially Efficiency of voluntary opening hand and hook prosthetic devices: 24 years of development? (JRRD, Volume 49, Number 4, 2012) -, today available solutions do not fully address patients' needs. In Nepal, only 2 upper limb prostheses options are generally proposed to patients because of supply and cost constraints. ORTHOPUS' objective is to extend patients' autonomy with a new set of prosthetic solutions. By offering low cost but high quality devices (according to CE marking requirements), another of the ORTHOPUS' missions is also to address supply and cost constraints. To improve patients' capabilities, ORTHOPUS aims at extending grasping capabilities compared to the usual passive aesthetic hand or voluntary opening one by proposing the following set of solutions: * an aesthetic articulated hand * a mechanical wrist * a work hook In order to assess the different stated hypotheses, a clinical trial is set jointly with HI Nepal. 14 patients will be enrolled in 2 cohorts (n1 = 7, n2 = 7), the first one is constituted with patients usually using an aesthetic passive hand whereas the second one comprise patients normally equipped with voluntary opening hand. After selecting and getting the informed consent of the patients, a month to make the sockets and adapt it to patients is planned. An evaluation of their quality of life will be done with the WHO QOL - BREF quality of life assessment before and after the test period of the trial. ORTHOPUS' set of prosthetic solutions will be tested by them over one month. They will have to fill on a daily basis a survey (OPUS) assessing their use of the prostheses. At the end of the test period, different questionnaires and surveys will be filled during a last interview to collect data. Data will be analysed in order to extract evidence for or against the trial hypotheses. With these results, a report will be written and submitted to the GATE (Global Cooperation on Assistive Health Technology) community managed by WHO. This report will also feed the ORTHOPUS R\&D with patients' feedbacks and, research findings will be shared publicly on different social media in respect with patient privacy.

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