Inside STAT: Surgeons test-drive the amputation of the future

SURGEONS PRACTICE A NEW AMPUTATION SURGERY INTENDED TO ENHANCE MOBILITY IN A PROSTHETIC HAND. (KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR STAT)

A holy grail for patients who’ve lost limbs — and for their doctors — is the creation of prosthetics that function as well as the real ones. Scientists have made progress with legs, devising a new kind of amputation that allows a robotic foot to integrate seamlessly with the body’s nervous system. Now they’re trying to adapt this experimental procedure to the arm, which is far more challenging because we demand so much more of our hands than our feet. On a recent November morning, three surgeons met outside Boston to test-drive the operation on a cadaver arm. Their goal: working out kinks in the procedure before trying it on patients. STAT’s Gideon Gil has more.