FDA authorizes use of stroke recovery device for hands

The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of IpsiHand, a device that assists people recovering from a stroke by using signals from the uninjured parts of their brain to help restore the use of a non-functioning hand, NPR reports.

The big picture: IpsiHand's FDA authorization allows NeuroLutions, the company that founded the technology, to manufacture the device to assist patients who are no longer benefiting from traditional rehabilitation.

• The device was tested on 40 patients for 12 weeks. All of the patients tested were reported to have gotten better, per NPR.
• An IpsiHand system consists of a headset that analyzes brain signals, a tablet computer and a robotic exoskeleton worn over the affected wrist and hand.
• The device, unlike other rehabilitation methods, can be used from home.

What they"re saying: NeuroLutions CEO Leo Petrossian said in regards to the process, "If you spend an hour a day doing this exercise of thinking and visualizing opening and closing the hand, five days a week for 12 weeks, you retrain a different part of the brain to drive that previously disabled appendage."

• "I got involved specifically to help take something that was great in clinical studies and figure out how we can now bring this out to the million-plus people in the U.S. living with disability post stroke," he added.