Modular Design And Evaluation Of A Plastic Splint Treated For Distal Radius Fractures

Distal radius fracture is very common in emergency,which usually treated by non-surgical treatment such as traditional chinese splint.However,with the development of science and technology,the achievement of research and the higher requirements of patients,the faults of splints are being more and more obvious.Although many researchers have made tremendous improvements of traditional splints,there are still some shortages need to be overcame.The thesis defined fixation,traction and flexibility as the novel splint’s function,following the principle of modern osteosynthesis.Applying the philosophy of modularity,four conceptual design were proposed,which were triangular structure,elastic continuum structure,push rod and pull string structure,elastic slider structure.After evaluated by six aspects related to the function with the method of geometry and mechanics,a prototype of the novel modular splint with elastic slider structure had been made,for it had the highest overall score among four conceptual design.Two experiments which built the relationships between displacement with skin deformation and moment of wrist rotation with angel were set to prove the feasibility of the mechanism.An optimized design was proposed to solve the problems in the elastic slider structure which were found though the experiments.After theoretical study of the optimized structure,a prototype had been made to conduct two cadaver experiments,which leaded the conclusion that the novel modular splint had met three design requirements and laid a foundation for the future clinical trials.