Development of a Smart Splint to Monitor Different Parameters during the Treatment Process

Abstract

For certain musculoskeletal complex rupture injuries, the only treatment available is the use of immobilization splints. This type of treatment usually causes discomfort and certain setbacks in patients. In addition, other complications are usually generated at the vascular, muscular, or articular level. Currently, there is a really possible alternative that would solve these problems and even allows a faster and better recovery. This is possible thanks to the application of engineering on additive manufacturing techniques and the use of biocompatible materials available in the market. This study proposes the use of these materials and techniques, including sensor integration inside the splints. The main parameters considered to be studied are pressure, humidity, and temperature. These aspects are combined and analyzed to determine any kind of unexpected evolution of the treatment. This way, it will be possible to monitor some signals that would be studied to detect problems that are associated to the very initial stage of the treatment. The goal of this study is to generate a smart splint by using biomaterials and engineering techniques based on the advanced manufacturing and sensor system, for clinical purposes. The results show that the prototype of the smart splint allows to get data when it is placed over the arm of a patient. Two temperatures are read during the treatment: in contact with the skin and between skin and splint. The humidity variations due to sweat inside the splint are also read by a humidity sensor. A pressure sensor detects slight changes of pressure inside the splint. In addition, an infrared sensor has been included as a presence detector.

Development of a Smart Leg Splint by Using New Sensor Technologies and New Therapy Possibilities

“…The same proposed methodology could be applied to other parts of the body [ 10 ]. In fact, it is analogous to others lesions that may require immobilization of the upper limb articulations, such as the wrist [ 16 ].…”

“…Therefore, the shock and vibrations are controlled. In addition, some of these sensors have been tested in a previous study, where it is detailed that accuracy of the selected sensors is enough for the purpose [ 16 ]. Details of these sensors are shown in Table 1 .…”

“…The electronic design and configuration of the temperature, humidity and pressure sensors are explained in a previous study [ 16 ]. However, the color sensor has been incorporated for the first time in this study.…”

“…Finally, a new mesh is generated with an offset of 3.7mm, which will be the thickness of the splint. That thickness will allow the different sensors to be fixed and a splint ruggedized enough to be built, based on previous studies about splints produced by fused deposition modeling and PLA mechanical properties [ 16 , 65 ].…”

“…The sensing technologies will be presented for data acquisition in the IoT-based healthcare system. Based on the previous study [ 16 ] the parameters that will be monitored are temperature, humidity, pressure and skin colour. The combination of these, can indicate different problems that the patients may be suffering [ 17 , 18 ], such as inflammation.…”