Production of relative motion orthosis with 3 dimensional printer and assessment of patient satisfaction

The Relative Motion Orthosis (RMO) is often a preferred treatment method for various hand injuries, because of the Quadriga effect. The orthosis is typically made using thermoplastic fabric material. The use of 3D printing technology is rapidly spreading in the field of rehabilitation due to the absence of the need for any molds and lower costs compared to mass production. In recent studies various types of orthoses and assistive devices have been produced using 3D printing. The aim of this thesis is to design an RMO with a universal design, produce it using 3D printing as an alternative production method, and compare it RMO that produced with 3D printer with the traditional RMO made from thermoplastic fabric material in terms of patient satisfaction. The production of the orthosis was carried out in 5 stages: the idea stage, computer-aided design stage, production stage, assessment stage and application to the patient stage. Eleven patients diagnosed with boutonniere deformity used the RMO produced with 3D printing, and twenty patients used the RMO produced with traditional methods. The production cost of the universal design RMO manufactured with a 3D printer is approximately 20 Turkish liras. The satisfaction of the two groups was compared using the Orthotics and Prosthetics User Survey satisfaction module. According to our study, the average satisfaction score of patients given the RMO produced with 3D printing was 90.27, while the average satisfaction score of patients using the RMO produced using traditional methods from thermoplastic fabric material was 89.05. According to the Mann-Whitney U test, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.82). As a result of our research, a cost-effective production method that can be used as an alternative to the traditional production method has been developed for GHO.