When a patient has a broken bone often a customized medical cast is made to immobilize that part of the body where the broken bone is located in order for the bone to heel. Every patient receives a custom made cast or a custom made splint. The cast is made by specialist in the hospital. During the heeling of the bone patients suffer from muscle atrophy because of the immobilization. This occurs typically after 5 days of immobilization. This can cause more space between the cast and part of the body of the patient where the cast is located. This can reduce the function of the cast. On the other hand is some mobilization helpful for the healing process.
In this graduation project, you will design an adjustable medical cast so that the immobilization is optimized and the muscle atrophy minimized.
When a patient has a broken bone often a customized cast is made to immobilize that part of the body where the broken bone is located in order for the bone to heel. Every patient receives a custom made cast or a custom made splint. During the phase of immobilization most patients are not hospitalized. Therefor their physician cannot monitor the heeling process of the bone. What noninvasive device could help both patient and physician to get a better insight in the heeling progress during immobilization in order to minimize the immobilization phase so that complications like muscle atrophy is minimalized?
In this graduation project, you will design a non-invasive monitoring medical cast to inform both patient and physician about the progress of the healing of the bone.
