• Question: how does engineering help with the comfort of a prosthetic leg

    Asked by 622mgrq36 to Shruti on 15 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Shruti Turner

      Shruti Turner answered on 15 Mar 2019:


      Having a prosthetic fitted to your body can cause pressure on what’s left of the leg which is really uncomfortable. Think about when you are wearing a pair of shoes that don’t fit properly. The rub and give you red marks on your feet or blisters. It’s the same for prosthetic limbs, but worse. We can just change out shoes, but they can’t stop wearing their prosthesis without giving up the ability to walk. I am creating a technology that uses pressure sensors in the prosthesis that links to a web application. We will be able to see a pressure map on a 3D model with a colour scale so we can monitor the pressure and redesign the prosthetic accordingly to ease the pressure points.

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