The KAFO Splint is a customizable, lightweight, fashionable – and functional – leg brace design.  Industrial designer, Or Steiner gave the old-fashioned leg brace a modern update which fuses the aesthetically pleasing with the strength needed to support a patient.

A Russian 3D printing company, Zdravprint, is using Replicator printers to create custom splints in a real-time hospital environment.  “Zdravprint has significantly moved forward,” Nadir Khabdulin, of Maxfield Capital Venture Fund, a seed investor of Zdravprint, tells 3DPrint.com. 

Exovite is currently “developing a system of immobilization and rehabilitation tools that will create a revolution in the field of orthopedics and musculoskeletal treatments.”  The Rehabilitation System attached to the 3D printed cast uses an electrostimulator, which allows the immobilization to be completed and to start rehabilitation and make those two processes overlap.

Bespoke Innovations has started using 3D printing to make custom cast prototypes that would stabilize broken body parts and can be worn in the shower and can even make the healing process more efficient.

An adolescent girl suffering from Tracheobronchomalacia, a rare congenital breathing disorder, recently underwent a surgery at CS Mott Children's Hospital, receiving the 3D Printed Tracheal Splint. Using Polycaprolactone and MRI & CTs, Dr Glenn Green was able to print the Splint-supported Trachea.

A group of researchers compared conventional and digital additive manufacturing of hard occlusal stabilization splints (SS) using technical and clinical parameters and 14 subjects underwent sequence of tests and questionnaires for 12 weeks. On a scaled of great discomfort,  Conventional had a score of 42 while Additive Manufacturing performed 15, meaning 3D Printed Stabilization Splints are far more comfortable and preferred over the conventional ones.

A group of Researchers in Italy approached 3D Printing to create Intraoral Occlusal Splints, which are used by dentists to treat temporomandibular disorders as they force muscles to relax and provide relief from pain. A 44-year-old man with unknown medical cause for pain in his jaws, was selected and fit with Intraoral Occlusal Splint to stop the pain and reposition the mandible. The team scanned the teeth of the patient and saved it as .stl file, followed by using 3D ProJet MJP 3600 Dental by 3D Systems to 3D print the Intraoral Splint, with VisiJet® M3 Stoneplast acrylic resin, made for dental practices. The patient got relief of the pain within three weeks and has been advised to keep using the splint for another six months.