A stylish-looking 3D-printed cast for broken bones uses an ultrasonic pulse generator to help stimulate the growth of new bone.
The wonderful thing about new ideas is that they are often spun off into combinations with other ideas into something excitingly different. Take the Cortex 3D-printed cast, designed by Jake Evill. Strong, lightweight and stylish, each cast could be custom-fit to the wearer and allowed the skin to breathe.
The Osteoid cast by designer Deniz Karasahin — winner of a prestigious A’ Design Award — takes the same basic idea of a custom-built 3D-printed cast and refines it. As well as having a snap-together design that can easily be removed, the cast is well ventilated, minimising smell and itching, and waterproof, meaning the patient would not have to worry about getting it wet.
The big addition, though, is something called a LIPUS generator. Standing for “Low-Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound”, it attaches to the cast and sends pulsed ultrasound into the affected area — a therapy that has been proven to speed the regeneration of damaged bone.
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