By Bridget Butler Millsaps
The use of–and the art of developing–prosthetics has a history nearly as old as humanity itself. Obviously, if you’ve never lost a limb or experienced the challenge of trying to work with only one hand, for example, it’s nearly impossible to understand. There are inspired individuals in the making and scientific community, some who have lost limbs and some who have not, who are on a mission to make the prosthetic as real, and as functional, as possible. And while that has always most certainly been the case, today we possess the tools to nearly give back what many are missing–or lost.
Not just the case with prosthetics, digital design and 3D printing are opening up many new avenues and showing thousands of patients options and inspiration they did not see as a reality. This is certainly the case–and lucky will be the recipient of the latest 3D printed prosthetic developed by a research team at Saarland University. 