3D printed cast the future of healing broken bones?
Jake Evill, a media design graduate of the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, has created a 3D printed cast for fractured bones that he says could replace the bulky, itchy and smelly plaster or fibreglass ones.
The prototype Cortex cast is lightweight, fully ventilated, shower friendly and thin enough to fit under a shirt sleeve.
It utilises the X-ray and 3D scan of a patient with a fracture and generates a 3D model in relation to the point of fracture. The structure can then be fit directly to the patient off of the 3D printer, with built-in fasteners added for the final enclosure.