New metric to track prosthetic arm progress

A new validated and reliable measure of how well an adult amputee is able to perform everyday tasks with a prosthetic arm will help physical and occupational therapists, prosthetists, and doctors assess the progress that patients make during training with their new limb.

Amputees with a new prosthetic arm must learn how to use their device to perform everyday tasks that were once second nature. Taking off a shirt becomes a conscious, multistep effort: grasp the shirt, lift the shirt over the head, pull arms through the sleeves, place the shirt on the table, let go of the shirt.

In the best cases of treatment, patients work with teams of doctors, prosthetists, and therapists to learn how their new limbs can help them regain function and quality of life. But clinicians have had few tools to assess whether that crucial teaching/learning process is going well, because of a lack of standardized measurements to use with adults with upper limb amputations. To change that, a research team has unveiled a new index that clinicians can use to assess their patients’ progress. They describe the Activities Measure for Upper Limb Amputees (the AM-ULA) in an article published online Oct. 19 in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.