If you’ve ever had to wear a regular plaster cast, you know how irritating it can be. They weigh down your arm, they eventually start smelling and you have to cover it with a plastic bag just to take a shower. Luckily, a startup company called Cast21 is trying to eliminate this. They are in the design process of creating a mesh sleeve that can easily be slipped on the patient’s wrist.
Once the mesh sleeve is slipped on the patient’s wrist, it is then filled with a liquid resin that hardens quickly to hold the bones in place.
Engineer Ashley Moy and biomedical design engineer Jason Troutner came up with the idea after partnering up for an engineering class.
The cast will be 100% waterproof so no more having to cover it with a bag when you want to swim or shower.
Because it’s very breathable and you don’t have to worry about things getting inside, you will very rarely, if ever have to take it off before your bones heal.
So you can go about your day as if you weren’t wearing one.
It will also be available in a range of vibrant colors.
Their mission is to eventually replace the hard plaster cast that we’re used to.
Instead of having an itchy cast, you will soon be able to wear a more breathable and hygienic sleeve.
Veronica Hogg, Cast21’s vice president of engineering, told the Daily Mail: “We have this radical notion that you can enjoy your healing experience. You don’t need to be restrained from daily activities.”
They claim fitting a cast will only take 10 minutes.
Once a doctor measures the limb, the patient chooses their new sleeve and it is filled with resins which only takes about 3 minutes to fill.
At the point the cast would be moulded to the limb and then wait about 5 minutes for it to harden.
It’s also much easier to remove the sleeve than traditional casts and no saw is required.
More info: Cast21
Cast21 is still in the development stages of their new cast sleeve. They have only been designing a sleeve for a forearm but they are hoping to create casts for legs eventually as well.