Digital Transformation and 3D Printing of Transtibial Load-Bearing Prosthesis in India: Recent Advances, Challenges and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The field of rehabilitation and assistive technology has witnessed various approaches and changes in the course of its evolution. Traditional materials like wood or heavy metals have been replaced by resins and plastics. The need to deliver assistive devices has quickly resulted in the creation of new technologies like 3D printing and digital transformation, internet of things IoT. This article addresses the development of applying digital transformation and 3D printing techniques to produce socket designs for weight bearing transtibial prosthetic system. It also focus on efficacy of the load-bearing transtibial sockets, design philosophies involved, materials used and the forthcoming challenges. This initiative involves experienced clinical prosthetists, product designers, digital modelers and additive manufacturing engineers working toward this application.

Additive manufacturing for prostheses development: state of the art

“…Several studies have been conducted on incorporating AM into socket design and advancement to address the issues of a transtibial amputee. Because of the low cost of printing, FDM is a common fabrication technique for prosthesis sockets (Lu et al , 2009; Moulic et al , 2019; van der Stelt et al , 2021). Traditional transtibial prosthesis design and manufacturing time vary between 5 and 14 days, including measurements (one day), mold creation (one to three days), socket creation (two to six days), assembly, alignment, fitting and cosmetic finish (one to four days).…”

Value beyond function: analyzing the perception of wheelchair innovations in Kenya

“…In the last few years, the number of projects leveraging 3D printing for the production of assistive devices in LMICs have started to fourish but full research accounts of them are still rare [25,26,46,71]. Driven by the pioneering e-NABLE hand (http://enablingthefuture.org/), the large majority of these projects focus on the production of prosthetics and orthotics devices for both upper and lower limbs [63].…”

“…For example, authors in [46] described the development and fabrication of a lower limb prosthetic socket. Rather than designing the socket from scratch using a CAD software, the shape of the socket is closely matched to the shape of the stump of the person which is captured through a 3D scanner.…”

Diseño y construcción de una prótesis de pata de can con amputación de extremidad delantera mediante impresión 3D.

“…Figura 1: Primera prótesis canina (3D-printer) (Zapata Saavedra, 2017) Por otra parte, la tecnología de deposición de material fundido o impresión 3D ha crecido enormemente en los últimos años, esto también en el campo de la fabricación de prótesis. En la actualidad se cuenta con técnicas, conocimientos y medios para que el tener una discapacidad no se vea afectado la vida cotidiana de los animales o personas (Ghosh, Hussain, Murthy, Khawade, & Singh, 2019). La implementación de esta tecnología está estrechamente relacionada a sus costos, estos son bajos en comparación a otros métodos de fabricación.…”