An Intelligent pipeline for designing personalized orthopedic casts

摘要

Introduction and aims: Bone fracture may happen as a result of traumaticinjuries during traffic accidents or sport activities. For every thousand people in Hong Kong, almost 4.5 people suffered from a bone fracture afterinjury and about 86.7% of the fractures sustained at the limbs of the patients(HKSAR-Government, 2011). Traditional orthopedic casts have been used tomold the soft tissue to the fractured bones for more than 150 years (Large,2001). The principle of this treatment is to give extra supports and immobilize the body parts to allow the bones to heal by providing sufficient support.A new mesh-like 3D printed cast design was introduced previously. Thisporous structure could improve ventilation and avoid dry skins and rashesat which the cast is applied. Fabrication of such design does not rely onthe craftsmanship of the practitioners. Also, rapid production is beneficialwhen treating patients with size-changing injured limbs which requiresfrequent cast replacement. We propose to develop a user-friendly automaticpipeline for designing 3D printed orthopedic casts based on geometric andstructural analyses.