Three students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are working on a new way to stabilize broken arms so as to avoid the downsides of traditional casts. Plaster and fiberglass casts that are used now don’t let air in and out, making the skin below itchy and smelly, and sometimes causing serious infections. The solution that the students are working on involves wrapping the arm in a braid made of hollow silicone tubes, and then pumping something like an epoxy into the braided structure to solidify it into a hard cast.Three students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are working on a new way to stabilize broken arms so as to avoid the downsides of traditional casts. Plaster and fiberglass casts that are used now don’t let air in and out, making the skin below itchy and smelly, and sometimes causing serious infections. The solution that the students are working on involves wrapping the arm in a braid made of hollow silicone tubes, and then pumping something like an epoxy into the braided structure to solidify it into a hard cast.
