Glow in the dark Supracondylar transtibial prosthesis

Another day another post I have a backlog of great ideas to show you. After a good quarter of prosthetic technician classes I was already formulating ideas on what I could do to try and set myself apart in the industry. After some searching I found some things that surprised me that nobody posted a whole lot of. I would now like to introduce you to my take on a glow in the dark prosthetic leg. No batteries required this one runs purely off of a resin additive.

Here I will start off showing some modifications that needed to be done to the check socket. This patients fibular head had shifted during the casting process so it needed to be relocated as well as some relief for the distal end of the tibia. I also made a built up pelite liner so the patient would slip into that then into the socket and friction over the epicondyles of the femur would retain the device on the patients residual limb.

 Here I am doing a one step lamination to get the pyramid component integrated into the socket. This layup involved a dacron bag with patches, 4 layers of nyglass, some fiberglass chop, the pyramid with fiberglass strands weaved through the wings, then I tied off 4 more layers of reflected nyglass to the pyramid component. Once that was done I sewed up my retro TMNT fabric and tied that off as well. At this point I lined up the pyramid component in line with the LOP of the socket and made sure I had 5 degrees knee flexion built in.

My video explaining what I am about to now explain.

 Here I have the outer PVA bag completely ready to put some resin into it.

 Now here is where the magic happens. I put the glow in the dark powder directly into my catalyzed resin and mixed it in just like I would have had I been using liquid pigment.

 Now I am waiting on my resin to set. There was some pooling of glow powder in some places but given the right fabric this would be unnoticeable. Either way those areas light up like the sun when it gets to be night time.

 I am making a foam cover for this device in class so next I put together a jacket for it.

 Next I was learning how to blow a socket off the plaster model. I had to be careful to not mar up the pelite liner I worked so hard on. So I drilled and stopped before I hit the liner. Then I took the air hose and introduced air into the hole. The jacket came pretty easily the socket took some nudging with the wood and a hammer and an extra set of hands.

 There it is in all its simplicity.

                                                                Components attached and trimmed out.

 So this is a chore. First off I started off by hogging out the hole in some medium density foam like you see in the background there. At that point I put the jacket in and made sure that everything fit before I glued it. Next morning I came in and shaped the leg. I found that I had been to heavy handed with the Trautman and taken to much foam away on the initial hole so I had to repair it.

 Doesn't look to bad after all of the repair work. Kind of looks patch worked but the shape was nice.

 Here I have all the parts for final assembly and loctiting.

 Final assembly. I really can't see much of the pattern on it but it does glow even down the interior of the socket.

 Here come the glamor shots. This is what I envisioned the whole time. It turned out beautifully.

And that my friends is a glow in the dark prosthetic leg.

Acknowledgments
Yenny Cocq is a wonderful artist that supplied me with the glow in the dark resin additive. She is a pleasure to work with.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ResinArtSupply

Raymund Morales is a talented photographer and an all around professional at what he does. He captured the glamor shots you see here at the end. I could not be happier with the shots. He is also very professional in setting up times to work with. Definitely check out his work.

http://www.rmoralesphoto.com

This is me signing off have a great day.

Melvin