The grant comes from the NIH's National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, a component of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. To be comfortable and easy to use, the socket must hug the contour of the remnant limb. But limbs vary greatly in shape from patient to patient because surgeons have different ways of shortening bones during amputation. If a socket does not fit well, it can cause pain and hamper walking. Prosthetists currently take a plaster cast of the remnant limb, use the cast to make a socket, and manually sculpt the socket to obtain the best fit.
Considerable guesswork is involved because the socket deforms the flesh when in place.
Vannier thought it would be better to look directly at interactions between the socket and flesh. Mathematical modeling of the changes that take place in the flesh is done in collaboration with Barna A. Szabo, Ph.D., the Albert P. and Blanche Y. Greensfelder Professor of Mechanics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Vannier is testing the validity of his 3-D graphical displays with adult amputees. Then he will compare images of patients with poorly fitting prostheses with images of patients whose prostheses fit well. That should allow us to develop reliable methods to improve the design and evaluation of artificial limbs.