A woman has had an electronic device implanted in her left arm to help her "relearn" the ability to move a limb that has been affected by two strokes in nine years.

Fran Read, a 46-year-old former hairdresser, hopes to rediscover her netball skills after the first use in Britain of a procedure to restore damaged nerves and muscles.

Scientists from Southampton University will today fit Ms Read with a cuff that will send signals to the tiny radio frequency stimulators injected into her body under local anaesthetic last month.

They hope the device will enable her to extend her elbow and wrist and open her hand. It is is similar to those used in the shoulders and arms of patients in the US, Canada and Japan.

Ms Read, whose strokes have affected her left side but not her ability to walk, is the first of about half a dozen volunteers testing the equipment before a more formal trial. She has told researchers she wants to play netball again and needs to be able to throw and catch a ball with both hands.

The stimulators, implanted close to nerves supplying muscles, should mimic messages from the brain to recreate useful function in paralysed or weakened arms.

Jane Burridge, senior lecturer in neurorehabilitation, said there was controversy over attempts to recover limb function.

"Until now, electronic stimulation devices have not been well accepted, mainly because with surface systems people have difficulty putting the electrodes in the correct place to achieve a useful movement and implanted systems have involved major surgery," she said.

"Because the system is implanted, electrodes do not need to be placed on the skin, and because individual muscles are activated, a more functional natural movement is possible. The implantable microstimulator can remain implanted even if no longer needed and the system is designed to facilitate recovery by supporting voluntary movement rather than replacing it.

"It is also less invasive than previous generations of neural implants, and because the electrodes are so small they can be implanted into many different muscles, providing the potential to create the fine-graded movement essential for hand and arm function."