Assistive technologies for pain management in people with amputation: a literature review

Abstract

The prevalence of limb amputation is increasing globally as a devastating experience that can physically and psychologically affect the lifestyle of a person. The residual limb pain and phantom limb pain are common disabling sequelae after amputation surgery. Assistive devices/technologies can be used to relieve pain in people with amputation. The existing assistive devices/technologies for pain management in people with amputation include electrical nerve block devices/technologies, TENS units, elastomeric pumps and catheters, residual limb covers, laser systems, myoelectric prostheses and virtual reality systems, etc. There is a great potential to design, fabricate, and manufacture some portable, wireless, smart, and thin devices/technologies to stimulate the spinal cord or peripheral nerves by electrical, thermal, mechanical, and pharmaceutical stimulus. Although some preliminary efforts have been done, more attention must be paid by researchers, clinicians, designers, engineers, and manufacturers to the post amputation pain and its treatment methods.

No Effect of Microgravity and Simulated Mars Gravity on Final Bacterial Cell Concentrations on the International Space Station: Applications to Space Bioproduction

“…In contrast to other organisms, the effects of reduced gravity regimens, such as microgravity or Martian gravity, on bacterial growth rates and final concentration are controversial. Some of the discrepancies could have been caused by the use of different experimental conditions, due to the variety of scientific questions addressed and the scarcity of spaceflight opportunities, as recently reviewed in Huang et al (2018) . The ESA BioRock experiment examined the microbe-mineral interactions of three bacteria with diverse characteristics ( Supplementary Table 1 ), under identical growth conditions, in the same experimental apparatus and during the same spaceflight.…”

“…Potential roles of microorganisms in space will include manufacturing ( Menezes et al, 2015a , b ), as building blocks of ecosystems ( Gòdia et al, 2002 ), and in biomining on celestial bodies ( Schippers et al, 2013 ; Reed et al, 2016 ; Jerez, 2017 ). Space-based research on microorganisms has been performed for the bioproduction of antibiotics ( Klaus et al, 2001 ; Benoit et al, 2006 ), other secondary metabolites ( Huang et al, 2018 ) and vaccines ( Ruttley et al, 2009 ) for terrestrial consumption. In addition to being useful, they also present challenges, e.g., through the formation of corrosive biofilms ( Gu et al, 1998 ) and altered virulence in space ( Wilson et al, 2007 ; Rosenzweig and Chopra, 2012 ).…”

“…The term microgravity (μ g ) is commonly used to describe a gravitational accelerations smaller than 10 –2 × g and close to 10 –6 × g ( Horneck et al, 2010 ; Zea et al, 2017 ; Huang et al, 2018 ), and it is experienced for instance by objects orbiting around a celestial body in space, such as satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The effects of microgravity on eukaryotic multicellular organisms has been extensively reported for plants ( Gòdia et al, 2002 ; Matía et al, 2010 ; Kiss et al, 2012 ; Paul et al, 2013 ; Zabel et al, 2016 ), animals ( Wassersug et al, 2005 ; Bart et al, 2019 ; Maupin et al, 2019 ; Tahimic et al, 2019 ) and humans ( Cavanagh et al, 2005 ; Van Ombergen et al, 2017 ; Axpe et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The majority of the data on bacterial growth in microgravity are the results of separate projects with necessarily diverse experimental designs and a limited number of replicate samples, and overall they addressed various endpoints for distinct scientific questions ( Pollard, 1965 ; Bouloc and D’Ari, 1991 ; Gasset et al, 1994 ; Kacena et al, 1997 , 1999b ; Kacena and Todd, 1997 ; Klaus et al, 1997 ; Baker et al, 2004 ; Nickerson et al, 2004 ; Horneck et al, 2010 ; Mulders et al, 2011 ; Kim et al, 2013a ; Zea et al, 2016 , 2017 ; Huang et al, 2018 ; Milojevic and Weckwerth, 2020 ; Nicholson and Ricco, 2020 ). Consequently, it is difficult to draw generalizable conclusions on the effects of gravity on bacterial cell growth.…”

“…Similar discrepancies were reported for other bacterial species ( Kim et al, 2013a ) and for eukaryotic microorganisms ( Mulders et al, 2011 ). A summary of the data on microbial growth in microgravity can be found in Huang et al (2018) .…”