We developed a fully validated, low-cost (US$0.06), rapidly manufactured (22 minutes), PLA 3D-printed Schepens scleral depressor.

Information regarding the printing process and the validation process can be found in the preprint paper: 

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8242729/latest .

Despite its affordability and accessibility, PLA has a low transition temperature (~60°C) and is incapable of autoclaving. Currently, if sterilization is needed, alternative methodologies such as ethylene oxide must be employed, however, no tests have been conducted for poststerilization safety. Thus, at the moment, this prototype is recommended for single use and not sterilized.

Authors:

Luís Expedito Sabage^1,2#, Mariana Pasqualin Wojcikiewicz³, Thiago Meister², João Pedro Vieira Neto Murta², Gustavo Túlio Manfredini⁴, Jair Marcelo Saad Ortega⁵, Josmar Sabage⁶, Carlos Augusto Moreira-Neto², Alessandra Mazzo^1,6

¹Hospital de Reabilitações em Anomalias Craniofaciais da Universidade de São Paulo, Bauru – SP, Brazil

²Hospital de Olhos do Paraná – Instituto Professor Moreira, Curitiba – PR, Brazil

³Faculdade Evangélica de Medicina do Paraná, Curitiba – PR, Brazil

⁴College of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando – FL, USA

⁵Tecnoprom Engenharia e Automação, Cordeirópolis – SP, Brazil

⁶Faculdade de Medicina de Bauru, Universidade de São Paulo, Bauru, SP, Brasil

^#Correspondence:

Luís Expedito Sabage, MD

E-mail: luis.sabage@usp.br

Funding:

This work was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (grant number #2024/16042-9).