Replication of clinical prosthetic sockets for research purposes

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Prosthetics and Orthotics
• Rehabilitation Technology

Background:

• Clinical research in prosthetics often requires standard prosthetic sockets for realistic outcomes.
• A global shortage of prosthetists limits the inclusion of clinical sockets in research studies.
• Engineering-focused labs often conduct studies with anatomically intact individuals, lacking clinical relevance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel, prosthetist-independent method for accurately cloning clinical standard prosthetic sockets.
• To facilitate more representative and accurate research into prosthetic technologies.
• To enable further research into socket design and electrode placement by removing confounding factors.

Main Methods:

• A silicone-based technique was employed to capture the precise shape of a clinical prosthetic socket.
• The captured shape was converted into a plaster mold for manufacturing identical sockets.
• 3D scanning and CloudCompare software were used to validate the accuracy of the cloned socket shape against the original.

Main Results:

• The proposed technique successfully created an identical clone of the clinical standard prosthetic socket.
• 3D scan analysis showed a mean distance of only 0.16 mm (SD 0.38 mm) between the original and cloned socket meshes.
• The cloning process was demonstrated to be feasible, accurate, and non-destructive.

Conclusions:

• The developed method provides an accurate and accessible way to replicate clinical prosthetic sockets for research.
• This technique overcomes the limitations imposed by the prosthetist shortage, enhancing prosthetic technology assessment.
• The non-destructive nature of the process opens new avenues for research in prosthetic socket design and functionality.