Stroke patients often experience unusual stiffness of the hand, which is also referred to as spasticity. Therapists make use of dynamic hand splints as part of the rehabilitation process of these patients.
The Product Development Technology Station developed a patient specific Dynamic Hand Splint produced by Additive Manufacturing (AM).
This allows for local production of complex hand splints that are tailored to the patient’s specific needs and this is done in a cost and time effective manner. Traditional dynamic hand splints are expensive and have extensive manufacturing lead times due to the patient specific and complex nature of the devices.
The ability of AM to produce on demand and custom medical devices has made it an attractive technology in the medical orthoses and prosthetics environment.
AM design principles such as mass customisation, compliant mechanisms and part consolidation were utilized to produce a novel Dynamic Hand Splint. This improved functionality, replicating hand biomechanics which allows motion in a specific direction while also restricting and supporting undesired motion.
The use of AM therefore made it possible to produce an aesthetically pleasing low cost durable Dynamic Hand Splint which can be easily customised according to patient’s requirements.