Scientists at Southampton University have developed a crutch that calculates whether a person is putting too much weight on a broken leg.The crutch monitors how much pressure the person is putting on their leg and beeps if they are overexerting or under-using their limb.

Placing too much pressure on a fracture can be harmful as it can cause further damage to the bone and prevent healing.
However, putting too little pressure on a broken bone can also be problematic as a certain amount of weight is required to stimulate bone growth.

The intelligent crutch lets the user know what they are doing wrong by displaying a reading so that they know whether to put more or less weight on their leg.Professor Neil White, who developed the crutch with Dr Geoff Merrett and physiotherapist Georgina Hallett, explained: “A growing number of people are in need of physiotherapy but reports from physiotherapists indicate that people do not always use crutches in the correct manner.”Until now, there has been no way to monitor this, even though repeated incorrect use of the crutch could make the patient’s injury worse.”Ms Hallett said that the crutches should help patients to learn how to use them properly.

“This will help them to get out of hospital faster and also reduce their risk of further damaging an already injured leg by putting too much or too little weight through it.”So far, the crutches have only been used in a hospital environment, but the researchers hope that the technology could also be used at home.This would help thousands of patients who break a bone as a result of the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis each year in the UK.