An automatic procedure for modelling patient-specific wrist orthosis

Background

In recent years, the treatment of wrist fractures has been the focus of numerous studies, particularly in the development of casts modeled on the patient's anatomy using additive manufacturing techniques. A 3D printed cast offers several advantages over traditional treatment methods, including washability, lightness, and ventilation.

Objective

This work introduces an automatic procedure for designing patient-specific wrist orthoses from a 3D scan of the arm using open-source mesh-processing libraries.

Methods

The procedure consists of seven steps that generate a customized orthosis model. Due to the absence of a single library capable of completing the entire modeling process, we defined the best execution strategy for each step and established a communication flow between the various blocks.

Results

The resulting orthosis comprises two halves, secured by three appropriately positioned bands and perforated with ventilation holes. The modeling procedure takes approximately 5 min to complete and was evaluated on 20 scans of arms of different shapes and sizes. The process proved to be fast, reliable, and suitable for direct use by medical personnel.

Conclusions

The developed automatic procedure for designing patient-specific wrist orthoses is efficient and effective, facilitating the use of 3D printed casts in medical practice.