Advanced prosthetic limbs: Leveling the playing field for amputee athletes

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Prosthetics, artificial devices that take the place of a missing limb or an injured body part, have been used since Ancient Egypt and Greece. The earliest prosthetic limbs were simple affairs, often made of wood or iron, and had limited to no functionality other than to fill the space.

Prosthetic limbs have come a long way since then. Advances in biomedical engineering have made them lighter and stronger, with joints and moving parts that allowed for articulation and more natural movement.

Today's prosthetic limbs help amputees perform daily tasks and regain their quality of life. They also allow amputee athletes to accomplish great things in their sport and to compete on the same level as able-bodied athletes.

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In 2014, Markus Rehm, a German Paralympic long jumper who competes in the F44 class, became the first athlete with disabilities to compete in the German national championships and win the long jump event by leaping 8.24 meters. Rehm uses Össur prosthetic blades, similar to the ones used by sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who was allowed to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics after a protracted legal battle.

Advanced prosthetic limbs work so well that there are concerns as to whether they provided an unfair advantage to athletes with disabilities. However, a study has shown that while modern prosthetic blades carry benefits to wearers such as increased speed, faster leg turnover, and longer strides, they also diminish energy returns on the disabled athlete by about 90 percent, compared to the energy return of an able-bodied leg and foot (249 percent).

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Rehm, in an interview with The New York Times, stated, “People want to say the blade gives me an advantage. They forget that the blade is just helping me replace the leg that I lost.”

In the future, through more advances in the science of prosthetics, the debates could become more heated. For now, sports federations are faced with the task of determining whether prosthetic limbs do more than level the playing field for amputee athletes, and whether they should be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes.

Follow this Riyesh Menon Google+ account for discussions on advanced prosthetics.