Additive manufacturing knowledge incursion on orthopaedic devices : the case of hand orthoses

• Main Authors: García-García, Leonardo A., Rodríguez-Salvador, Marisela
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Hand Orthoses; Orthopaedic Devices; DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Prototyping
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88721; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45908
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Additive manufacturing is growing rapidly in the health industry because of the superior advantages it has over conventional methods such as customization. From the vast applications of this technology, the development of orthopaedic devices represents an attractive opportunity. The orthopaedic field in particular is in dire need of new ways to adapt orthoses to individuals for hand rehabilitation, a common and growing problem around the world. This study aims to identify additive manufacturing research efforts for hand orthoses development. Scientific production from 2000 to 2016 in this domain was assessed. The use of additive manufacturing for hand orthoses creation was found to be scarce. Scientometrics tools were applied to identify the principal research focus, materials, additive manufacturing processes, and main institutions involved. Plastic materials, fuse deposition modelling (FDM) processes, and Solidworks software predominate in the scientific documents analysed. Loughborough University from the UK was found to be the institution with more publications. This research adds value to decision-making regarding R&D on this field.