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Advances in prosthetics aside, Boston amputees face challenges

The victims of the Boston Marathon bombing may have to live with the physical and emotional scars from the April 15 attack for the rest of their lives. For some of the injured, that includes learning how to live without one or more limbs.

More than 180 people were injured in the attack last week, with at least 13 people losing a limb or part of one. Right now, doctors are focused on recovery and making sure the victims are medically stable. But once the wounds heal, many of the patients will begin the process of being fit with a prosthetic device.

"This is not just about learning how to walk," Steve Fletcher, CPO, director of clinical resources at the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics and Pedorthics, told CBSNews.com. "It's a significant emotional, psychological, and physical recovery."

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Artificial foot recycles energy with every step

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created a prosthesis that makes walking much easier on amputees than current options. The trick: an artificial foot that recycles the kinetic energy generated by walking.

The device, detailed Wednesday in the journal PLoS One, works by mimicking the natural push-off of a human ankle, using a microprocessor to control the device and capture the energy normally dissipated by the leg:

In tests on subjects walking with an artificially impaired ankle, a conventional prosthesis reduced ankle push-off work and increased net metabolic energy expenditure by … Read more