CASE STUDIES: FITTING PATIENTS WITH HEAVY DUTY BI-DIRECTIONAL RATCHETING THUMB RAIL PROSTHESIS FOR CARPOMETACARPAL AMPUTATIONS
Abstract
The loss of the thumb from the hand is a debilitating injury representing a 40% impairment to the hand. The replacement of the function of the thumb is a challenging engineering problem for prosthetic device designers due to the numerous degrees of freedom of the thumb. Most commercially available prosthetic devices for thumb amputations do not provide for adduction or rotation of the thumb. Here, we describe the design of a modular locking adduction rail for people with thumb loss proximal to the metacarpophalangeal joint. This device is compatible with the commercially available Point Thumb prosthetic thumb from Point Designs and allows users to move the prosthetic thumb from a flat hand position to an oppositional position. The design of the bi-directional adduction rail is briefly detailed. Then, two case studies are presented which detail the clinical implementation of the adduction rail into a partial hand prosthetic socket for two different patients. These are some of first trial fittings of the adduction rail system and demonstrate significant functional gains achieved with this novel device.
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Published
2022-08-09
How to Cite
[1]
B. Pulver, “CASE STUDIES: FITTING PATIENTS WITH HEAVY DUTY BI-DIRECTIONAL RATCHETING THUMB RAIL PROSTHESIS FOR CARPOMETACARPAL AMPUTATIONS”, MEC Symposium, Aug. 2022.
Conference Proceedings Volume
Section
Prosthetic Devices and Materials
