AWARD YEAR
2015
CATEGORY
Body
GOALS
Good Health & Well-being
KEYWORDS
healing, medicine, cast
COUNTRY
Turkey
DESIGNED BY
Deniz Karasahin.
WEBSITE
http://www.dkdesign.biz
OSTEOID CAST
A modern medical 3D-printed cast that speeds up the healing process.
The Osteoid is a custom cast that could speed up bone healing by nearly 40 percent using 3D printing and ultrasound technology. In order for the cast to fit perfectly on the patient’s limb, the area with the broken bone is scanned via a 3D body scanner. The data is transferred to modeling software and then an additional locking mechanism and algorithmically generated ventilation holes are added to the final CAD data along with LIPUS probe adapters. The final product-the Osteoid medical cast-is made from two pieces that can be fixed together like a jigsaw puzzle. A central hole passes through the edges of these pieces, where a flexible pin is inserted to tightly connect them. Requiring only 20 minutes per day, the low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) leads are placed on the skin, over the bone injury - this is the key technique used to expedite the bone healing process.