Prosthetic Socket Design Software

The clinical problem it solves

The socket is the only part of a prosthesis that touches the patient, and most fit problems start there. In the traditional flow a plaster negative is taken, a positive is cast and the model is corrected by hand: how much material came off where is the technician's decision and is written down nowhere. So when limb volume changes six months later, the revision is rebuilt from scratch rather than on top of the previous decision.

In digital socket design the limb geometry is scanned once and every intervention stays on that model as a parameter. The next socket is produced by comparison with a recorded geometry, not with an estimated difference.

From limb scan to socket geometry

The flow starts by bringing the residual-limb scan into the lower-extremity workspace. The scan is aligned along its axis and the distal end and proximal brim are set. A socket form is then derived; the clinician marks the regions meant to carry load and the regions that must relieve pressure-sensitive structures.

The brim line, medial and lateral heights and the trimline are edited on screen. Every edit is saved as a version and two versions can be compared side by side, so the answer to "what did we change last time" stays in the file.

Clinician approval enters at two points in this module: approving the regional load/relief map, and approving the final form before it goes to production. The software proposes; the clinician decides.

Measurements and output

The module derives residual-limb length, circumferences level by level and volume from the scan. Comparing two scans shows volume change as a number — which ties socket replacement timing to a record rather than an estimate.

The output is an STL production file. The check socket and the definitive socket come from the same digital model, so corrections made on the check socket do not have to be transferred to the definitive one by hand. The file goes to the clinic's printer or to a partner manufacturing centre.