a. Prosthetics

• Earliest artifact of an artificial limb dates back to 300 B.C.

• 1923 First artificial hip replacement.

• Wilson Greatbatch designed the first artificial pacemaker in 1958

• First artificial heart transplant in 1982.

• The Edinburgh Modular Arm System was developed in 1998 and was the first prosthetic arm that used robotics.

b. Human Growth

• Human growth hormone was discovered in the 1920’s but it was not until 1958 that scientists begin to use growth hormone. 

• 1978 Rinderknecht and Humbel published the amino acid sequences of both  IGF-I and IGF-II

• 1980 the Bone Healing System became the first bone growth product using direct current electrical stimulation to cause bone growth, which was used to help heal fractures.

• June 2003 poly(lactide-co-glycolide) was used as a biodegradable scaffolding for bone repair.

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