[[Medico-historical findings of (neuro-) prosthetics: an online survey]

This article presents an online survey on medico-historical (neuro-)prostheses. Important findings of the past 3000 years are outlined: toe prostheses from ancient Egypt, the Capua leg prosthesis, Götz von Berlichingen's artificial hands and Sauerbruch's prosthetic arm. These historical examples are compared with modern neuroprosthetics. It is also shown that historical prostheses were in no way primitive and, even more, that ancient people already used first intelligent medical engineering approaches.