High-Tech Prosthetics & Orthotics Enable Active Lifestyles

Ever-improving technologies that increase the effectiveness of high-tech prosthetic and orthotic devices are enabling users to embrace active lifestyles.  People with amputations now have prosthetic devices that allow them to engage in and function more effectively in a wider range of daily activities, exercise, sports, and even extreme sports, such as long-distance snowshoeing and ice climbing.  Michael K. Carroll, from the Hanger Clinic (Oklahoma, USA), and colleagues report that not only do advanced prosthetics and orthotics technologies promote the ability to perform daily activities independently, but these innovations  also permit extreme recreational pursuits because of the ability to manage rigorous environments, climates, and terrain.