Rheumatoid arthritis is a disabling auto-immune disease. It is a painful condition, can cause severe disability and ultimately impair a person’s ability to carry out everyday tasks. Symptoms include joint swelling and stiffness that often leave the sufferer feeling generally unwell. Now, a new type of 3D printed splint has been designed that will be able to provide far greater support for suffers of this debilitating disease by empowering clinicians with no experience in computer-aided design to provide custom-made wrist splints.
A joint badly affected by rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis causes inflammation in the 
The splints are the outcome of research incepted by Dr. Paterson during her PhD at Loughbourough University between 2009 and 2012 when she was supervised by Dr. Ian Campbell and Dr. Richard Bibb who posited the concept for bespoke wrist splints in the late 1990’s. Dr Bibb, Reader in Medical Applications of Design at the Loughborough University Design School, said: “We are in the development phase. The research has proved that this is desirable and the clinicians want it. We know there’s lots of potential.”
The innovative splints are made by scanning a patient’s arm in the appropriate position for an extrapolation of the precise dimensions that will provide the most comfortable fit for the individual. The digital file can then be 3D printed, producing as many splints as are needed, effectively resulting in fully wearable end use iterations of the splint design. Given the multi-colour, multi-material capacity of the Stratasys Objet Connex 3D printers that are being used by the team, the splints feature multiple materials to maximise comfort and fit. The splints utilise the aptitude of additive manufacturing techniques to produce precise complex geometries to form a lattice design that aids ventilation for the patient’s arm, and can be used with any type of fastening that the patient requires for ease of use.
Doctors Bibb and Paterson are currently now performing a thorough cost analysis of service provision for the custom splints, with estimates that the 3D printed splints should be more cost-efficient than equivalents produced by traditional means of manufacturing. The doctors project that with financial backing they could perfect the software to begin empowering clinicians to customise these splints within just eighteen months.
[1] Chronic rheumatic conditions – World Health Organisation
[2] The global burden of rheumatoid arthritis in the year 2000 – Deborah Symmons Colin Mathers, Bruce Pfleger
[3] What Is RA? – Ailsa Bosworth, Chief Executive, National RA Society
Image Credits: Top – Arthritis Research UK; Bottom – Loughborough University
