PRostheses and orthoses for mobile and specific phantom and deafferentation pain therapy (“PROMPT”)

Training with mobile therapy support systems

The joint research project funded by the BMBF aims to develop and evaluate innovative mobile therapy support systems (IMTSS) for two target groups with chronic phantom or deafferentation pain: patients with arm amputations and patients with lesions of the brachial plexus. The IMTSS include an innovative prosthesis system for amputees and a novel, dynamic and lightweight orthosis system for plexus patients. The approach combines a bottom-up and a top-down mechanism of action. On the one hand, the systems are equipped with somatosensory feedback to enable information feedback from the periphery and motor rehabilitation. On the other hand, the system is supplemented by virtual reality approaches, an innovative therapy option based on the existing mirror therapy. The starting point for the therapeutic effect is a causal change in mechanisms of cortical plasticity, which have been repeatedly demonstrated for chronic pain. The sub-project in Jena aims to assess a possible cortical organization at the beginning and potential changes towards normalization in the sense of a retro-reorganization in the course of therapy. In addition to pain evaluation using questionnaires and a diary, measurements using magnetoencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging are used.

Contact: Thomas Weiß & Hanna Köhler

You can download a flyer with further information here hierpdf, 425 kb · de