This past week our class was doing the check socket fitting for our Transradial (Below Elbow) prosthetic project. But, instead of doing a figure of 8 harness with a hook terminal device we had the pleasure of fitting a myoelectric courtesy of Otto Bock. Otto Bock took the time to come to our school and guide us through the use of their PAULA (Prosthetist Assistant for Upper Limb Architecture) software and the different components available. When our professor first said we were going to be fitting our patients with a myoelectric prosthesis it seemed like a daunting task.

But after I got some experience doing muscle testing with the Myoboy and introduced to the components I was going to be using it seemed like a much more manageable task and I felt more comfortable going ahead and getting the system to work with my patient. After that everything went very smooth. I found a good signal from the patient’s muscle and after a slight modification to the check socket to integrate the electrode in the socket everything functioned great and my patient was able to control the hand with no problem at all. It is so amazing to be able to restore that kind of functionality and just reminds me why this is going to be the best job ever.