Disclosures: Cesar A. Colasante, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: Create a wrist-extension driven, 3D-printed device to replace or augment grasp by means of a modular terminal device adaptable to different patient populations and different activities of daily living.

Design: A wrist-extension driven device was designed using CAD/CAM software. The forearm is supported and wrist extension powers a driving mechanism connected to a modular terminal device. The terminal device can act as a prosthesis for amputations, agenesis and hypoplastic fingers or as an orthosis by augmenting grip strength when anchored to existing fingers.

Setting: University-affiliated Academic Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation training program.

Participants: One subject with finger amputations and one subject with weak finger flexion.

Interventions: A comfortable, adjustable, modular device that utilizes tenodesis grasp to replace or augment finger flexion was designed in CAD software and 3D-printed in thermoplastic materials. The device was applied to a subject with weak finger flexion and one with finger amputations.

Main Outcome Measures: Grip strength measured with Dynamometer Nine-Hole Peg Test Patient satisfaction survey.

Results: The 3D printed tenodesis grasp provided improved grasp to the subjects with finger amputation or weak grasp.

Conclusions: Traditional methods to create tenodesis grasp assistive devices are expensive and time-consuming to fabricate. This makes traditional devices unaffordable in developing countries and impractical for patients with evolving processes (e.g., progressive neuromuscular disorders, recovering stroke and spinal cord injury) and those with changing limb size (e.g., children, patients with edema from trauma). A 3D-printed modular device is a low cost-alternative, providing a temporary and easily modifiable solution to weak grasp in selected patients. Advantages include low cost, easy modification for individual patients, ability to change the terminal device for different activities, and low-cost user trials.

Level of Evidence: Level V

« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2019

PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/modular-3d-printed-tenodesis-grasp-assistive-device/