Point-of-care digital manufacturing workflow for patient-specific 3D-printed burn orthoses in a low-resource setting: A retrospective study.

INTRODUCTION: Burn injuries cause substantial long-term disability in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where access to specialized rehabilitation and patient-specific orthoses is limited. Hospital-based point-of-care (POC) digital manufacturing may enable local production of customized burn orthoses in resource-constrained healthcare settings. METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated a hospital-based workflow integrating optical three-dimensional (3D) scanning, computer-aided design (CAD), and in-house fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printing. Four patients aged 3-16 years represented acute-phase, preoperative, postoperative, and hybrid perioperative orthotic pathways. Feasibility outcomes included workflow completion, technical failures, design iterations, fabrication time, clinical fitting, and delivery time. RESULTS: The workflow was completed successfully in all four cases without technical abandonment, repeat scanning due to technical failure, conversion to conventional fabrication, or print failure. Scanning required 20-25 min, CAD customization 5-8 h, and cumulative printer operation 29-78 h. All orthoses were clinically fitted and delivered within 2-3 days of the clinical request. Three cases were completed after a single design iteration, whereas Case 4 required three iterations because of evolving postoperative anatomy and functional requirements. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital-based POC digital manufacturing of patient-specific burn orthoses was technically and operationally feasible in this low-resource clinical setting. The workflow supported orthotic management across multiple stages of burn care and provides a practical implementation framework for resource-constrained healthcare systems. Larger prospective studies are needed to evaluate clinical outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and long-term sustainability.