Dudley S. Childress, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Edward C. Grahn, Project Director Richard F. ff. To determine whether direct muscle attachment, in the form of tunnel cineplasty or otherwise, will provide superior prosthesis control compared to that possible with conventional methods.
Surgical intervention is necessary to provide direct muscle attachment to prostheses.
Tunnel cineplasty is an example of a procedure used to bring a muscle force outside the body with which to power and control a prosthesis. The procedure involves the construction of a skin-lined tunnel, by way of skin grafts, through a muscle belly. Developed by Sauerbach in 1916, the procedure fell out of favor in the USA during the late 1950's due mainly to the failure of a significant number of tunnel cineplasties to provide sufficient force and excursion with which to power a prosthesis. But the excellent control properties the procedure provided, and continues to provide is well documented. Under these circumstances the problem of sufficient power would no longer be a complication since it would be provided by an external source.