Wrist Driven Partial Hand Prosthesis
Custom Prosthetic Services Ltd.
Description
Collection
Title:
Wrist Driven Partial Hand Prosthesis
Creator:
Custom Prosthetic Services Ltd.
Date:
6/24/2001
Text:
I am wondering if anyone has had any success with a wrist driven prehension prosthesis for a partial hand amputee?
I am working with a client who has had a traumatic amputation of all four phalanges through the MP joints and a part of her thumb through the IP joint. She retains full wrist motion and good strength and range of motion with her thumb remnant. The amputation was sustained ten years ago, and a silicone passive cosmetic hand was fabricated shortly thereafter, which she claims never to have used. She has managed her affairs until now without any prosthetic device, however, she is interested in taking up some activities such as rowing, water-skiing, and motorcycling, which will require bimanual grip and dexterity. She is not willing to consider osseointegration implants, and desires a prosthetic device that will give her positive and controllable grip, while still permitting radial and ulnar wrist deviation.
I am thinking of fabricating a prosthesis that incorporates braided perlon cables in teflon housings to simulate the tendons of the flexor muscles, spanning the palmar surface of the wrist and routed to the prosthetic fingertips via a curved and channeled palmar shell. Spring steel incorporated into the silicone prosthetic fingers would provide an extension bias upon wrist flexion, while wrist extension would cause the fingers to flex into a curved grip.
Your comments or suggestions regarding this or any other ideas would be most welcome.
Geoffrey Hall, B.Sc., C.P. ( c )
I am working with a client who has had a traumatic amputation of all four phalanges through the MP joints and a part of her thumb through the IP joint. She retains full wrist motion and good strength and range of motion with her thumb remnant. The amputation was sustained ten years ago, and a silicone passive cosmetic hand was fabricated shortly thereafter, which she claims never to have used. She has managed her affairs until now without any prosthetic device, however, she is interested in taking up some activities such as rowing, water-skiing, and motorcycling, which will require bimanual grip and dexterity. She is not willing to consider osseointegration implants, and desires a prosthetic device that will give her positive and controllable grip, while still permitting radial and ulnar wrist deviation.
I am thinking of fabricating a prosthesis that incorporates braided perlon cables in teflon housings to simulate the tendons of the flexor muscles, spanning the palmar surface of the wrist and routed to the prosthetic fingertips via a curved and channeled palmar shell. Spring steel incorporated into the silicone prosthetic fingers would provide an extension bias upon wrist flexion, while wrist extension would cause the fingers to flex into a curved grip.
Your comments or suggestions regarding this or any other ideas would be most welcome.
Geoffrey Hall, B.Sc., C.P. ( c )
Citation
Custom Prosthetic Services Ltd., “Wrist Driven Partial Hand Prosthesis,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 23, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/216835.
