I'm a bit uneasy about the fact that they are punching through skin. This always bears a big risk of infections as the skin is the #1 protection from bacteria. Even prosthetics fully under the skin have this risk, and septic shock is a possibly lethal threat. And we humans love to put our hands to various sometimes more, sometimes less, dirty places.
For your awareness, this risk has largely been observed and researched in the field of dental implants. I'd suspect this research would be extended and applied here with this concept.
My assumption is that the exposed components are not just made from titanium (biocompatibility) but are also textured in such a way that soft tissue can enforce a seal, but I'm speculating because I'm not finding the necessary documentation on it. Someone more informed may be able to chime in.
Edit: This is the closest starting point I've found for your continued reading.
A year or two ago I investigated what the state of the art was for metal grafted onto bone (for example to mount prosthetics) and the conclusion was "it often works or only gets a little infected. Sometimes it gets badly infected, not much we can do about that", but that was the actual practice.
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I'm a bit uneasy about the fact that they are punching through skin. This always bears a big risk of infections as the skin is the #1 protection from bacteria. Even prosthetics fully under the skin have this risk, and septic shock is a possibly lethal threat. And we humans love to put our hands to various sometimes more, sometimes less, dirty places.
For your awareness, this risk has largely been observed and researched in the field of dental implants. I'd suspect this research would be extended and applied here with this concept.
My assumption is that the exposed components are not just made from titanium (biocompatibility) but are also textured in such a way that soft tissue can enforce a seal, but I'm speculating because I'm not finding the necessary documentation on it. Someone more informed may be able to chime in.
Edit: This is the closest starting point I've found for your continued reading.
http://www.jdionline.org/article.asp?issn=0974-6781;year=201...
A year or two ago I investigated what the state of the art was for metal grafted onto bone (for example to mount prosthetics) and the conclusion was "it often works or only gets a little infected. Sometimes it gets badly infected, not much we can do about that", but that was the actual practice.
Do you think the people involve care about your unease? Or do you think the lady is willing to risk infection to have a working hand?
I bet the doctors have thought an awful lot about the balance between the risks and benefits.