Electric versus pneumatic power in hand prostheses for children.

Most externally powered hand prostheses for children with a unilateral congenital below-elbow amputation are myoelectrically controlled. All of them are electrically powered. Despite the success of fitting children with this kind of prostheses, there are some disadvantages: prosthetic weight is high, operating speed is low, the system is vulnerable and its size prohibits fitting it to patients with a long fore-arm stump. It will be shown that pneumatic power can overcome most of these disadvantages.