For amputees, sockets are a
critical part of any prosthesis,
supporting their weight and movement.
But they often have to be modified or remade
several times if the initial fit isn't
right and to adapt to the changing shape
of the patient's limbs, says physiatrist
Dr. Amanda Mayo.
It's a multi-step
process each one taking about eight
hours to complete by hand.
Prosthetics are made very manually. We take
manual casts, and the prosthetists and the
technicians have to do a lot of
fabrication, so it takes a long time.
We're just trying to see if we can make
things more efficiently for patients and
use 3D printing sort of in the
prosthetic space.
That's led to
Sunnybrook trialing this: having a 3D
printer do the work, creating a digital
model of the patient's leg from a
computerized scan using a handheld
tablet.
Shawn Fitzpatrick became an
amputee following a motorcycle collision
last year. He says the traditional manual
casting method has its drawbacks. It's a
whole week before you get it and the
whole week might not seem like much but for
somebody that's learned how to walk and
everything it's pretty significant. He
says it would be great for patients to
have another option. So I hope 3D printing... once it scans your whole leg, that's
your leg and I hope that slides and fits like a glove.
Dr. Mayo says there are a lot of people
who are building prosthetics but
Sunnybrook is the first to study how
safe, effective, and patient-friendly 3D
printing is. For now, the focus is on
testing the technology on patients with
lower extremity limb loss. If successful
it could offer prosthetists one more
tool to work with and skills around what
could very well be the technology
shaping the future of their field.
With Sunnyview, I'm Monica Matys.
