###3D printed Bespoke Neck collar for patients suffering from Dropped Head Syndrome (DHS)
Project ID: 2228bd1110 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Division of Surgery and Interventional Sciences
Lead Supervisor: Deepak M Kalaskar
Project Summary:
Dropped Head Syndrome (DHS) is a complex, and challenging condition, causing neck pain, difficulty eating, and impaired horizontal gaze. DHS can affect patients with multiple underlying neurological, neuromuscular, and malignant conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, myasthenia gravis, motor neuron disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and malignancy. Although many of the underlying conditions are medically treatable, some patients present with progressive disability caused by worsening deformity. Currently, there are few good management options apart from complex multi-staged, surgical reconstruction of the deformed spine, which carries significant risks of morbidity and mortality. Current non-operative options for patients who have not responded to medical treatment of their underlying condition are limited to off the shelf orthoses which are generally poorly tolerated and ineffective for long-term management of this condition. Previous work by our group has shown that bespoke 3D printed neck collars can helps these patients, reduce their pain, improve their mobility and quality of life. Propose PhD project aims to build on this work to use engineering design principles to automate the design and validation process of 3D printed bespoke neck collars so that predictive outcomes can be obtained. The specific objectives of the project include: