Do three-dimensional printed prosthetics in below elbow amputee patients offer an affordable and accessible option to a customized and individualized prosthetic experience?

The study seeks to investigate the newly developed technology of three-dimensional printing and the potential to utilize it for prosthetic development. The question is, do three-dimensional printed prosthetics in below elbow amputee patients offer an affordable and accessible option to a customized and individualized prosthetic experience? The study is designed around a literature review thus reflects on current knowledge including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions. Overall the collected works point to three-dimensional printing having significant potential in the development of more affordable prosthetics. In low resource communities and for low resource individual’s three-dimensional prosthetics offer opportunity to access otherwise inaccessible technology. The ability to customize and create one off solutions is a uniqueness and significant positive to three-dimensional printed prosthetics. The current available literature does not provide enough evidence to reliably prescribe three- dimensional printed prosthetics, however there are clinical trials in process that may change the direction of the conversation in the near future