Sometimes, accidents are unavoidable. Whenever they happen, they can leave an individual with major injuries, especially in their limbs. Thanks to the availability of a prosthetic service, people can live a better life
following an accident. If your leg or arm has been amputated, you do not have to worry about how you will carry out your daily activities. A prosthesis will allow you to carry out such activities without much struggle. All you have to do is search for the best prosthetic companies around you, and you can be assured of getting the best service.
Experts carry out the procedure, and therefore, you need to have it done by an authentic company. If you are looking for a fake arm prosthetic or modern prosthetic leg, you will have a lot of research to do. You do not want to have a procedure that will result in you developing more complications. Therefore, an expert’s opinion is equally important as choosing the best prosthetic company. There are plenty of companies claiming to offer such services. However, not all of them have the experts to perform the procedure to its perfection. In most cases, it is important to get a referral from someone who has used the prosthetic service before.
Around the world, it’s an unfortunate fact that someone has a limb amputated every 30 seconds. This amounts to over one million limb amputations every year. In the United States, there are approximately 1.9 million people that have experienced the loss of a limb and are currently living with this situation.
On an annual basis, 185,000 people in the United States need to have a limb amputated. The most common reasons to have this procedure performed are due to vascular disease and trauma. The former is the case with 54% of these amputations, and the latter is the case with 45%. The Center for Orthotic and Prosthetic Care reported that while 86% of the amputations performed were for a lower limb, the remaining 14% were for an upper limb.
While it is considered to be the least common, congenital amputation also occurs. Approximately one out of every two-thousand babies is born with part or all of a limb missing.
By 2050, it has been estimated that there will be 3.6 million Americans living with the loss of a limb. In order to assist the individuals that are currently living with limb loss as well as those that will undergo this procedure in the future, there are four main types of artificial limbs or prosthesis:
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- Transtibial
- Transfemoral
- Transradial
Transhumeral
It’s important to note that custom prosthetics are available for limb loss. In addition to having custom prosthetics made for aesthetic reasons, prosthetic limbs are also able to enhance mobility and have the capacity to assist people with performing a variety of tasks.
Advancements continue to be made within this area, and orthotic services currently provide assistance to individuals that are missing a limb or have other issues that require custom prosthetics. This includes back braces, or spinal orthoses, for individuals that have a curvature of the spine. These devices are intended to prevent the curve from becoming worse. In some cases, however, the curves may decrease in size.
Currently there are over 3,000 facilities within the United States that are able to provide prosthetic and orthotic services. Whether you or someone in you love is in need of these services, it’s likely that these is a patient care facility within your area where you can obtain an initial consultation to learn about your options.
