Authors (including presenting author) :
Ho CYH(1), Lau HYA(1), Wong CYO(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Prosthetic & Orthotic Department, Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
3D-Printing (3PD) technology has been widely used in the prosthetic and orthotic services as well as surgical instrumentation. Now, we have been providing prosthetic, orthotic and adaptative devices for patients in rehabilitation and functional restoration using 3DP, by which the service delivery time can be shortened significantly. Nevertheless, the bottleneck of service delivery will be migrated to the 3D design repeatedly for different patients who require the same or similar design. To further shorten the lead time, a virtual 3D model library for prosthetic, orthotic, as well as adaptive and surgical instrumentation is developed and facilitate the collection of 3D designs with different varieties, sizes, and functions so that they are immediately 3D printed for patient fitting.
Objectives :
An intranet online virtual library was established to collect the 3D models. These models could be obtained from the creative designs of previous cases or existing 3D physical models through the reverse engineering. The virtual library contains the 3D models in STL format categorized into different functions and sizes. The library would be retrieved and matched according to patient’s needs. Additionally, the 3D models can be easily modified in case the original design is not perfectly matched for the patient’s needs in terms of sizing and function. The modified design will be stored and keeps the library volume growing.
Methodology :
The virtual library has already stored many terminal devices of different functions and sizes for upper limb amputees. These devices restore functions including chopping, cutting, gripping etc. for daily activities. For example, the latest design allows above-elbow amputee to play violin with a range in different directions while pulling the string in violin.
Result & Outcome :
In the future, different types of terminal devices for different purposes like grasping object, sport activity and playing musical instrument would be included in the library to improve patient quality of life. Different types of cosmetic cover of prostheses are accumulating in the virtual library. The virtual library network will be extended to other cluster’s services so that all the clinician can share the 3D models and help in building up the volume of the library. The provision of rehabilitation devices could be enhanced and shorten the lead time with the continuous growing of the virtual library and 3DP technology for clinical use.
