Almerina had lost her left hand at the age of 23 years ago in a car accident and had since been resigned to permanent disability, but the hope of having a new hand became a reality in 2016. The hand was made by Silvestro Micera's group , the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and the Lausanne Polytechnic. The surgery was performed in June 2016 in the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome by the group of the neurologist Paolo Maria Rossini. The experimentation, the results of which are being published in an international scientific journal, is the third stage of a path that began almost 20 years ago and whose ultimate goal is to create such miniaturized electronics as to lead to fully implantable prostheses.
“It was a very strange impression, I hadn't had my hand for 23 years,” said the woman, recounting the experience she experienced during the experiment. "My hand - he added - had resumed holding objects in hand, feeling the difference between metals, fabric, wood and plastic to the touch with the index finger". Extraordinary sensations for those who have not been able to try them for a long time, but which still translate into something similar to a slight pressure or a prick: "it is not enough that people who experience prostheses are happy with the sensations they experience, we want to get to functional ”, said Christian Cipriani, of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, who has been working on the development of the bionic hand for 13 years. The hi-tech hand experienced by Almerina in her first 'release', in October 2016, has the electronics enclosed in a backpack similar to the one used at school and weighing about three kilograms. The backpack, explained Micera, “contains the system that records the movements of the muscles and translates them into electrical signals, which are then transformed into commands for the hand; another system transforms the information recorded by the hand sensors into signals to be sent to the nerves and then into sensory information ”. The electronics were made by the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna together with the University of Cagliari and the electrodes implanted in the muscles are made by the German University of Friborg. Lasted six months, the test gave important information to finally reach the ultimate goal of this long research. For Rossini, the hope is that the long road of experimentation will soon reach the final goal, which is to make these innovative prostheses available at affordable costs. Over time there will come a point where the replacement of parts of the human body will become normal and affordable.