Gone are the traditional methods of manufacturing orthoses and prostheses. 3D printing has made it possible to create these types of medical devices, making them lighter, stronger and adjustable to the specific needs of each person. Prothesia, a Mexican company, takes advantage of technology to offer better solutions to people with amputations or mobility problems. In addition to manufacturing, Prothesia functions as a network that connects patients with the best prosthetists and doctors in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. We spoke with its CEO, Francisco Valencia, who shared with us Prothesia’s work.
3DN: Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your relationship with 3D printing?
Hi! I’m Francisco Javier Valencia Valdespino, and I started 3D printing thanks to a fellow mechatronics engineer, Gustavo. Gus was about to leave his life in Mexico for a year to travel to Asia as a missionary. Among the things he left behind was his printer, which he donated to me. I gladly accepted and put it to work to generate income to support my friend in his project. This led me to start a 3D printing agency in 2017, printing everything from art, anatomical models and ankle foot orthoses. The relationship with 3D printing became closer, more interesting, and it demanded more and more of my time (and money), but it didn’t matter as long as the machine finished a job successfully.
The feeling of waking up in the morning and seeing the finished 8-hour piece was like being on Christmas Eve and looking forward to Christmas every morning, although sometimes that piece ended up being a big spaghetti. This last part taught me the value of iterations, resilience and having version control not only for prototypes, but for all projects that were to come. This led me to explore open source projects like Enable, which sparked a great curiosity of printing medical devices, something that would have more impact than a Pikachu keychain or a vase, something that was of interest to me since I come from a family that works in the healthcare system. Being able to use my engineering knowledge for healthcare was something I was very excited about.
3DN: How was Prothesia born and what is your vision?
Prothesia was born in 2017 from combining this knowledge in medical device design and meeting a suitable patient, who needed just what he had been working on with a university colleague for months. A static ankle foot orthosis for a pediatric patient with spastic cerebral palsy. The goal of the device is simple: to correct and rectify spasticity (a type of muscle stiffness that the patient has in his limbs).
Our vision is to be able to propel people and give them the freedom to walk again. Today we are proud to see Prothesia serving 10 cities in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. Technology is a vital part of the business but the standardization of good care, impeccable logistics and access to financing has been key. Our favorite part is being able to see people walking with their prosthetic legs and getting them back to walking, back to their jobs, back to caring for their families or back to exercising.
3DN: What materials and 3D printing technology do you work with at Prothesia?
We started working with thermoplastics from PLA, ABS, PETG, PP, PC and we migrated to SLA (medical resins, elastic, rigid) and finally SLS (Nylon11, Nylon12). We were pioneers in Latin America in the printing of orthoses and in being able to standardize their manufacture. During the pandemic we printed tens of thousands of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs, a joint project with Formlabs, USF and the FDA, which gave us a fast track approval.
3DN: From your experience, what are the benefits of 3D printing orthotics and prosthetics?
It came to transform the industry forever, it is an important tool that now we see how every 6 months it advances with new materials, new improvements in manufacturing, in software in machine components such as better thermal conductors, more powerful CPUs, smarter PID systems, this is thanks to the millions of dollars placed annually in R&D since the great promise of 3D printing for this decade is not only in transforming the medical device industry but also the aerospace industry. Today, we see startups using lunar dust to manufacture components that can self-assemble with the promise of building a lunar base.
Fortunately, these inventions will end up positively impacting the lives of patients who need prostheses to regain their freedom and walk again. In our case, we see patients who need leg or arm prostheses. The most common amputations are transtibial and transfemoral. We have used 3D printing to print aesthetic covers to give more security and self-esteem to the patient.
3DN: How do you ensure customization of the devices?
With a team of doctors, engineers, prosthetists and physiotherapists, it is a requirement to understand the anatomy of the residual limb, to understand the volumetric changes that there will be, especially if they are diabetic patients, in Prothesia, 8 out of 10 patients we see suffer from diabetes and in a matter of hours there can be swelling.
3DN: Any last words for our readers?
It is a very exciting time for all the hobbyists and professionals in the industry, together we drive and decide the future of new materials, components and software platforms where we work every day. I am excited about the next 10 years of this industry. I think it will be very common to see 3D printers in homes, workshops, hospitals and factories. I’m excited to see where 3D bioprinting, bioinks and new mesh processing algorithms, generative AI and advancements in the electronic components within the printers themselves are going. If you are in this industry, I congratulate you, don’t stop printing value for others and sharing with children, youth and adults, the benefits of this industry.
What do you think of Prothesia? Let us know in a comment below or on our LinkedIn or Facebook pages! Plus, don’t forget to sign up for our free weekly Newsletter to get the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox. You can also find all our videos on our YouTube channel. Interested in more medical and dental 3D printing news? Visit our dedicated page HERE.
*All Photo Credits: Prothesia