Current and future manufacturing of chest orthoses, considering the case of osteogenesis imperfecta

The present paper aims at discussing the current manufacturing processes of chest orthoses, considering patients affected by Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) and a possible future scenario. OI is a genetic disease caused primarily by the genes responsible for collagen production. One of the most common symptoms among the groups of living subjects affected by OI is scoliosis, the abnormal deformation of the spine curvature. The non-invasive treatments for realigning the spine consist of both physical exercise and use of chest braces. The latter are strongly patient-dependent devices; thus, the level of customization is high. The production processes can be classified in: traditional, modern and research process. The first one consists of a sequence of manual operations on plaster casts and final orthoses. The modern process integrates CAD/CAM systems for the first phases of virtual 3D modeling and the automation of the cast production using milling robot, but maintaining the second part of the process. The research process considers the introduction of polymer Additive Manufacturing (AM) in substitution to the thermoforming. Advantages and disadvantages related to each process are discussed in relation to the OI problem.