Design and fabrication of anisotropic textile brace for exerting corrective forces on spinal curvature

Abstract

This study focuses on the fabrication of an anisotropic textile brace that exerts corrective forces based on the three-point pressure system to treat scoliosis, which is a medical condition that involves deformity of the spine. The design and material properties of the proposed anisotropic textile brace are discussed in detail here. A case series study with 5 scoliosis patients has been conducted to investigate the immediate in-brace effect and biomechanics of the proposed brace. Radiographic examination, three-dimensional scanning of the body and interface pressure measurements have been used to evaluate the immediate effect of the proposed brace on reducing the spinal curvature and asymmetry of the body contours and its biomechanics. The results show that the proposed brace on average reduces the spinal curvature by 11.7° and also increases the symmetry of the posterior trunk by 14.1% to 43.2%. The interface pressure at the corrective pad ranges from 6.0 to 24.4 kPa. The measured interface pressure shows that a sufficient amount of pressure has been exerted and a three-point pressure distribution is realized to reduce the spinal curvature. The obtained results indicate the effectiveness of this new approach which uses elastic textile material and a hinged artificial backbone to correct spinal deformity.

Design and characterize of kirigami-inspired springs and the application in vertebrae exoskeleton for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis brace treatment

“…In this study, three subjects who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were asked to participate in the 2-h wear trial to evaluate the instant effect on the change of the spinal curvature of the flexible brace with the exoskeleton hinge vertebrae after a 2-h intervention. The clinical trial experiment is based on the previous paper using flexible brace to see the effect of the design with five subjects Fok et al (2022). The X-ray images of subjects before and after the intervention are shown in Figure 11.…”

“…The detailed structures of hinge vertebrae are presented in Figure 1B. The design was modified based on our previous work in Fok et al (2022). As mentioned in the Introduction section, the Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering frontiersin.org previous design of the hinge bone only allowed the subject to bend along the sagittal plane and did not provide support in the sagittal plane during bending, which affected the durability and wearing comfort of the brace.…”

“…Passive elastic elements (e.g., carbon fiber beams Näf et al (2018)) are applied in some passive designs to eliminate the demand for actuators and power sources. Our research team has recently developed several anisotropic textile braces for AIS patients with moderate spinal curvature (21 °-40 °) Chan et al (2018); Wong et al (2021); Fok et al (2022). For designs in Wong et al (2021); Fok et al (2022), artificial hinged backbones are attached to the back of the brace to stabilize the corrective components.…”

“…Our research team has recently developed several anisotropic textile braces for AIS patients with moderate spinal curvature (21 °-40 °) Chan et al (2018); Wong et al (2021); Fok et al (2022). For designs in Wong et al (2021); Fok et al (2022), artificial hinged backbones are attached to the back of the brace to stabilize the corrective components. The subject is only allowed to bend along the sagittal plane under the restrictions of the hinged backbones.…”