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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Patient-specific 3D-printed Splint for Mallet Finger

Injury

Ali Zolfagharian *, Timothy M. Gregory , Mahdi Bodaghi , Saleh Gharaie , Pearse Fay 3
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1 School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong 3216, Australia
2 Department of Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
3 School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia
Abstract: Despite the frequency of mallet finger injuries, treatment options can often be costly, time-consuming, and ill-fitted.
Three-dimensional (3D) printing allows for the production of highly customized and inexpensive splints, which suggests
potential efficacy in the prescription of casts for musculoskeletal injuries. This study explores how the use of engineering
concepts such as 3D printing and topology optimization (TO) can improve outcomes for patients. 3D printing enables the
direct fabrication of the patient-specific complex shapes while utilizing finite element analysis and TO in the design of the
splint allowed for the most efficient distribution of material to achieve mechanical requirements while reducing the amount
of material used. The reduction in used material leads to significant improvements in weight reduction and heat dissipation,
which would improve breathability and less sweating for the patient, greatly increasing comfort for the duration of their
recovery.

Keywords: Patient-specific, Three-dimensional printing, Splint, Topology optimization

*Corresponding Author: Ali Zolfagharian, School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong 3216, Australia; a.zolfagharian@deakin.edu.au
Received: January 28, 2020; Accepted: February 28, 2020; Published Online: March 27, 2020

Citation: Zolfagharian A, Gregory TM, Bodaghi M, et al., 2020, Patient-specific 3D-printed Splint for Mallet Finger Injury.
Int J Bioprint, 6(2):259. DOI: 10.18063/ijb.v6i2.259

1 Introduction many factors that impact on the wearing of
splints resulting in non-adherence and decreased
Mallet finger is one the most common upper outcomes . In addition, it is a lengthy and
[3]
limb athletic injury that may occur due to bony labor-intensive process requiring the fabrication of
avulsion or tendentious lesion . This injury could
[1]
significantly affect individuals overall function, multiple casts leading to excessive use of materials
and efforts. Yet, additive manufacturing (AM)
impairing their work-related skills and social
capability to perform daily living activities . technology recently allows for the fabrication
[2]
The current treatment involves immobilizing the of individualized prosthetics based on patient
[4]
affected joint using a splint made of thermoplastic anthropometrics .
or plaster in a neutral position. The splint could Additively manufactured orthosis orthopedics
be prefabricated; however, in most cases, a for injuries treatments or rehabilitation are not
trained health professional cast a splint for the currently in widespread use, though, it could
patient. Intrinsically, the outcome will be highly potentially offer a way to reduce the cost of
dependent on the skills and knowledge of the production and enable easy customization to an
medical practitioner. Even with highly trained individual in biomedical treatments that addresses
health professionals completing this, there are many of the current barrier to adherence [5,6] .

© 2020 Zolfagharian, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
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