Plastic Leg Grows With Young Amputees

There are more than 54 million amputees worldwide, with 45 million of them in developing countries. Here, Erin Keaney, a PhD student in plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, tells how graduate students at the school crafted a plastic injection-molded prosthetic leg that costs less than $5 to mass produce and can be adjusted to fit a growing child.

The leg, demonstrated at the recent International Association of Plastics Distribution show in Chicago, can be continually adjusted to fit children throughout the growth period of eight to 18 years, without need for replacement.