David Sisson is a World-renowned Prosthetist

David SissonYou could say that David Sisson is passionate about what he does, but that wouldn’t quite capture it. The son of a master machinist whom he remembers as “a mechanical genius”, Sisson enrolled at Lane Technical School in Chicago with an eye toward an engineering degree in college. But then he took a part-time job with a prosthetist, and by 1974, while only a high school junior, he was already designing and fabricating artificial limbs under the tutelage of his employer.

Convinced that he had found his calling, Sisson studied prosthetics at the City College of Chicago and spent the first 20 years of his career in that city, much of it in major teaching hospitals, and was a senior staff prosthetist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), one of the world’s foremost research facilities for upper extremity prosthetics. Sisson reminisces:

“Today, I make my adjustments using a laptop. But when I began in 1974, artificial legs were carved from a block of willow wood, and I used to make my adjustments with sandpaper and a chisel. We would take measurements, make a drawing, cut the willow wood with a band saw, and then start carving it with a big machine and fitting it to the patient. Since then, I’ve seen probably five or six generations of technology come and go.”

It was at RIC that he became expert at fabricating complex prostheses for very involved patients. Explains Sisson, “We would see the ‘worst of the worst’ in industrial accidents on a daily basis. And about once a month, we would get someone missing two or three limbs from electrical burns or industrial accidents, and they were very difficult cases that needed very complex solutions.”

Such an extraordinary range and depth of patients has given Sisson a very holistic view of his patients and their needs. He says:

“Every amputee is different, and the solution for each has to be different. With lower extremity prosthetics, if the sockets aren’t comfortable, the prosthesis is practically useless. You can fit patients with the most elaborate components in the world, but if they can’t put their full bodyweight into the prosthesis as they drive their heel to the floor, that hardware won’t help them.”

“A good prosthetist remembers that the only thing one amputee has in common with another is that each is missing a body part. And that’s what makes my job a challenge. There are no ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions. And emotionally, what one person calls ‘getting my life back’ will be completely different for someone else. You have to listen and learn before you try to help.”

Having been continually exposed to the latest advances in prosthetic sciences, Sisson has become renowned for his knowledge of technologically sophisticated prosthetic solutions for patients throughout the world, and he was invited to be one of the first U.S. prosthetists certified to fit the C-Leg®®, an artificial knee that is probably the most highly developed and electronically sophisticated available today.

In fact, Sisson fitted what was only the third C-Leg® in the entire United States. He describes the leg enthusiastically:

“The C-Leg® was invented by a medical engineering graduate student in Canada who was an expert on microprocessor technology but— ironically enough—knew nothing about prostheses.”

“He began by visiting the local artificial limb shop and asking the prosthetist what was the best knee in the world. The answer was the Mauch-SNS, a purely mechanical leg with a hydraulic cylinder, invented over 50 years ago by a German missile scientist who emigrated to the U.S. after World War II.”

“The graduate student studied the mechanical leg and developed a microprocessor-based version of it. This prototype was not practical, as it was controlled by an external PC, but proved the concept, and it was shown at an international prosthetics conference in 1992 held in Chicago.”

“A German company, Otto Bock Healthcare, spent literally millions in four years to develop the knee, making it commercially practical. The C-Leg® has now been in the United States since 1998, and it is the safest, most functional knee in the world. After the prosthetist programs it, the patient need only plug it into the charger at night. It’s often prescribed for our injured combat veterans from the Iraq War.”

Sisson’s center for prosthetics & orthotics is located in Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital. He maintains an onsite laboratory and “loaner” equipment to provide faster service and thus minimize downtime when patients needs repair, replacement, or adjustment to their prostheses. He even keeps extra C-Leg®s on hand to lend to his patients.

Sisson Mobility Restoration Center: 4343 Beltline Highway, Madison, WI 53711. Tel. 1-608-278-9773 or call toll free 1-800-524-4366. Your premier option.