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The Pros of Printed Prosthetics

Sydney Maciejewski

Purdue University
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Prosthetics have been changing the lives of the injured and disabled for centuries. A

prosthetic limb has the power to make an amputee feel as though they had never lost that limb in

the first place. There is no denying that prosthetics change lives for the better, but what happens

when a prosthetic limb is unattainable? What is a person to do when they simply can’t afford a

prosthetic or when a child grows out of one too fast to keep replacing it? A solution to all of

these problems is on the rise. 3D printing is an upcoming piece of technology that can

revolutionize the medical field and the world of prosthetics. 3D printed prosthetics are an

affordable, customizable, and timely solution to the problems that come with traditional

prosthetics.

The first 3D printer was patented in 1986 by Charles Hull. He developed a method of

printing called “stereolithography.” In “3D Printed Prosthetics Roll off the Press,”

stereolithography is described as a process that “uses a highly focused (via lenses and mirrors)

UV laser to trace out (solidify) cross sections of a 3D object in a vat of liquid photoactive

polymer” (p. 29). While this sounds very complicated, 3D printing has largely had a reputation

of being a “do-it-yourself” technology. Anybody with access to a 3D printer and computer

software has the capability of creating using this technology. The process of 3D printing is

relatively simple. First, the user creates a design in computer aided design (CAD) software. This

file can then be sent to the printer to be transformed into a physical product. The printer

dispenses thin layers of material, usually a plastic, one on top of another until a 3D object is

formed. In “Designing the 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand,” Elmansy says, “3D printing allows

designers and manufacturers to convert CAD computer models to three-dimensional products.

Bypassing the traditional heavy machinery, 3D printers use desktop printers and additive

manufacturing technologies to produce a final product” (p. 27). This illustrates the availability of
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3D printing to the general public. No heavy machinery or factory is needed to create functional

products; it can all be done on a desktop from home.

Quite recently, 3D printing has found its way into the medical field, one of the most

prominent applications being in prosthetics. With a “do-it-yourself” attitude, many of the

prosthetics in use today are a result of the collaboration of artists, carpenters, and parents who

saw a need and decided to act upon it. Amputee Coalition tells the story of Liam, a young boy

who utilizes the first ever 3D printed hand. In the spirit of collaboration, e-Nable “an online

community where anyone can help collaborate on 3D printed prosthesis designs and get help

printing and assembling their own” (3D Printed Prosthetics | Where We Are Today) was created

to encourage others to pursue this path in prosthetics. Besides the sense of community that has

developed among those in this line of work, there are other benefits to 3D printing prosthetics

that are aimed more towards the good of the patient.

The benefits of 3D printing a prosthetic far outweigh those of buying a traditional

prosthetic. This is especially true for children who outgrow prosthetics rapidly. During a child’s

years of growth, a prosthetic may need to be replaced as often as every six months. The expenses

of this demand tend to be too much for the family to handle, and as a result, the child is left with

a prosthetic that does not fit correctly. Jorge Zuniga explains this situation further in “Cyborg

beast: a low-cost 3d-printed prosthetic hand for children with upper-limb differences.”

Children’s prosthetic needs are complex due to their small size, constant growth, and

psychosocial development . Familial financial resources play a crucial role in prescription

of prostheses for children, especially when private insurance and public funding are

insufficient . Most upper-limb prostheses include a terminal device, with the objective to

replace the missing hand or fingers. The cost of a body-powered prosthetic hand ranges
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from $4,000 to $20,000; depending on the mode of control, these devices require

extensive fitting procedures to develop the terminal device and often include a complex

system of cables and harnesses. Electric-powered units (i.e., myoelectric) and mechanical

devices (i.e., body-powered) have been improved to accommodate children’s needs, but

the cost of maintenance and replacement represents an obstacle for many families.

Voluntary-closing upper-limb prosthetic devices are more suitable for children and play a

crucial role in improving gross motor development. Currently, the most cost-effective

option for pediatric populations is a passive prosthetic hook; although functional, these

devices have a high rejection rate, in part due to an unacceptable cosmetic appearance.

Most current prosthetics do not adapt to the normal growth of children’s limbs and

require constant visits to health care providers for adjustments or replacement, which

may lead to abandonment. (2015, pg. 2).

Zuniga describes how a traditional prosthetic can cost thousands of dollars, but also raises the

issue of how aesthetics affect the retention rate of pediatric prosthetics. As a child, if a prosthetic

is not comfortable, no matter how realistic it may look, the child will not want to wear it,

resulting is the abandonment of the prosthetic all together and a waste of financial resources. In a

separate article from Ian Birrell titled, “3D-printed prosthetic limbs: the next revolution in

medicine,” Zuniga recounts how he was able to observe the importance of being able to grab

objects to his 4-year-old son’s development. This led to Zungia’s development of a 3D-printed

prosthetic hand called “Cyborg Beast” whose design was aided by the preferences and

imagination of his son. Cyborg Beast is the solution to several of the problems associated with

traditional pediatric prosthetics. Zungia’s model can be produced cheaply, using 3D printing,

eliminating the financial burden that comes with having to replace a child’s prosthetic so often. It
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is also composed of brightly colored material, and visually looks like a robot’s hand. This is

important to children who will view this prosthetic as a toy, increasing the retention rate of the

prosthetic’s usage. Most importantly though, this prosthetic, along with all other 3D printed

prosthetics, is customizable, and is designed with each specific patient’s needs in mind and can

be created in a time-efficient, cost-effective manner.

As mentioned earlier, 3D printed prosthetics have created a community of people looking

to help those who would not normally have access to traditional prosthetics. E-Nable is a

network of people who have uploaded their prosthetic designs for others to use and improve.

This database of blueprints has created a new degree of customizability to prosthetics. Kara S.

Tanaka’s article “Advances in 3D-Printed Pediatric Prostheses for Upper Extremity

Differences,” explains how one of these files can be customized to a specific patient.

Printing a prosthesis starts by downloading an open-source design file from the Internet

and scaling the model to fit the recipient. Many prosthetic models require measurements

from the unaffected hand and arm, such as the width across the palm or the circumference

of the forearm, to approximate the best fit... Customization can be done using computer-

aided design (CAD) software such as AutoCAD (Autodesk) or SOLIDWORKS (Dassault

Systèmes). Scaling and layout of parts is easily done with the programs provided by the

printer companies or with independent programs such as Slic3r (slic3r.org). Parts can be

printed in a wide spectrum of colored filament feedstocks that can be transparent, opaque,

fluorescent, glow in the dark, or metallic.

It is incredibly simple to customize one of these online files to fit a patient. This kind of

customization is unattainable with traditional prosthetics in a timely manner.

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References

Anderson Goehrke, S. (2018, April 17). 3D Printing for Prosthetics and Social Impact: Going In-

Depth with Stratasys and the VA. Retrieved from https://3dprint.com/208879/stratasys-

va-prosthetics-interview/.

Bhatia, S. K. (2014). 3D-Printed Prosthetics Roll Off the Presses. Retrieved from

https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/cep/051428.pdf.

Birrell, I. (2017, February 19). 3D-printed prosthetic limbs: the next revolution in medicine.

Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/19/3d-printed-

prosthetic-limbs-revolution-in-medicine.

Elmansy, R. (2015, July 23). Designing the 3D‐Printed Prosthetic Hand. Retrieved from

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/drev.10311.

Reidel, H. (2019, September 16). The Successes and Failures of 3D Printed Prosthetics -

PreScouter - Custom Intelligence from a Global Network of Experts. Retrieved from

https://www.prescouter.com/2017/07/3d-printed-prosthetics/.

Tanaka, K. S., & Lightdale-Miric, N. (2016, August 3). Advances in 3D-Printed Pediatric

Prostheses for Upper... : JBJS. Retrieved from

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https://journals.lww.com/jbjsjournal/Fulltext/2016/08030/Advances_in_3D_Printed_Pedi

atric_Prostheses_for.12.aspx.

Zuniga1, J., Katsavelis1, D., Peck2, J., Stollberg3, J., Petrykowski1, M., & Fernandez4, C.

(2015, January 20). Cyborg beast: a low-cost 3d-printed prosthetic hand for children with

upper-limb differences. Retrieved from

https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-015-0971-9.

3D Printed Prosthetics Where We Are Today. (2019, March 26). Retrieved from

https://www.amputee-coalition.org/3d-printed-prosthetics/.