Importance

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Abstract

A system and method for fabricating a thermoplastic prosthetic limb socket from a thermoplastic preform cone involves the steps of: obtaining a digital or physical positive representation of a patient's residual limb; determining a desired thickness for the thermoplastic socket; selecting a thermoplastic preform cone; calculating the dimensions of a proximate extension to be added to the proximate end of the digital or physical representation of the patient's residual limb based upon the dimensions of the patient's residual limb, the dimensions of the preform cone, and the desired thickness of the thermoplastic socket; forming a positive socket mold based upon the combined dimensions of the patient's residual limb and the extension; heating the preform cone; and stretching the preform cone over the positive cast. Preferably the method is performed on a CAD tool. The processing unit in the CAD tool has access to the dimensions of the residual limb, the desired thickness of the socket and the dimensions of the preform cone; and is thus able to compute the dimensions of the proximate extension based upon a set of algorithms stored in the form of a software package (or program) accessible and executable by the CAD's processing unit.

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First Claim