Proof of concept for a chronic, percutaneous, osseointegrated neural interface for bi-directional prosthetic control with haptic feedback

Neural interfacing and osseointegration are two largely independent fields of research that have gained significant momentum in the last few decades. Both osseointegration and neural interfaces have demonstrated the capacity to improve quality of life for amputees. How these technologies can benefit each other has been largely unexplored. Here we describe the development of an Osseointegrated Neural Interface (ONI) for prosthesis control in rabbits, combining current clinical practices for treating amputation neuromas, with neural interfacing and osseointegration. We performed experiments to test the bidirectional interfacing capacity of nerves transposed into bone over time. We found that nerves transposed into bone can be chronically interfaced for bi-directional communication, and that osseointegration can be leveraged to act as a percutaneous connection point for neural interfaces and a prosthesis. These results demonstrate proof of concept for an ONI to provide chronic, compact neural interfacing for improved prosthesis use.