Improved Boutonniere Brace
BIOMECHANICS | ERGONOMICS | 3D PRINTING
After neglecting to treat a dislocation to a finger on my left hand, I developed what is known as a chronic boutonniere deformity (X-rays and pathoanatomy shown upper left). The only treatment for the condition is done with primitive and painful braces (images bottom left) that were intended to stretch those lateral tendons to their initial length, but because of poor design and improper fitting, my condition worsened when I used them.
After neglecting to treat a dislocation to a finger on my left hand, I developed what is known as a chronic boutonniere deformity (X-rays and pathoanatomy shown upper left). The only treatment for the condition is done with primitive and painful braces (images bottom left) that were intended to stretch those lateral tendons to their initial length, but because of poor design and improper fitting, my condition worsened when I used them.
As a result, I designed and fabricated alternative geometries and mechanisms that incorporated improved ergonomics and aspects from soft tissue physical therapy, like heating and vibration. Using knowledge of soft tissue mechanics and anatomy, I used rapid prototyping techniques to created 13 iterations of an improved brace (images to the right) that allowed for a floating, adjustable tension mechanism on two nitinol rods that provided a user specific mechanical advantage and geometry, and used heating elements and vibrational motors to improve blood flow and quicken the recovery process. The process and results were published in the Journal of ASME medical devices.
| asme_brace_paper.pdf |