New Prosthetic Fin Design for Patients with Tibial Amputation

After an amputation, sport provides several benefits, and therefore most therapists recommend strengthening the affected limb by a regular training. Swimming is an ideal exercise to do so, and although amputees can swim easily without using any prostheses, this may lead to injuries. Currently, there are several prosthetic fins available in market for people with transtibial amputations, but all of them have their setbacks. This article describes the conceptual design of a hydrodynamic prosthetic fin that allows swimming in different styles just by activating a locking/unlocking button. User Centred Design approach was used for its conception, being later modelled by CAD tools (SolidWorks). The materials were selected taking into account user specification with CES Edupack software. Finally, both an analytical study and flow study were performed to validate the design.