Single-use plastic bottles find second life in prosthetic devices  

How do you slash the cost of a prosthetic limb socket from approximately $6,000 to around $12? Simple: You fabricate it from plastic water bottles, and strike a blow against plastic waste in the process. The idea originated with Dr. Karthikeyan Kandan, a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester in the United Kingdom. Kandan used granulated materials from recycled plastic water bottles to spin polyester yarn that is heated to form a solid, lightweight material and molded into prosthetic limb sockets. The first-of-its-kind device could address the gap between high-performance prostheses costing thousands of dollars and affordable devices that lack quality and durability, explained Kandan, who is also associate director of DMU’s Institute of Engineering Sciences. “There are so many people in developing countries who would really benefit from quality artificial limbs but unfortunately cannot afford them,” said Dr Kandan. “The aim of this project was to identify cheaper materials that we could use to help these people, and that’s what we have done.” The socket was trialed in India with above-the-knee and below-the-knee amputees.  Kandan traveled to India with the socket, which was manufactured at DMU, to trial the device with two patients, one who had been amputated above the knee an...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Tags: Plastics Today Source Type: news