Shop Talk

The benefits of fitting a rigid removable dressing (RRD) soon after transtibial amputation surgery have been well documented. RRDs enhance healing by immobilizing and supporting soft tissues. They prevent post-operative...

Pressure, Equilibrium, and Lever Arms: Principles of Orthosis Design and Conventional metal orthoses have not changed significantly over the past 150 years. Aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium are used in...

Distal tissue elongation is a common occurrence in transtibial sockets with locking liners. Various gel liner manufacturers offer matrix systems to reduce distal tissue elongation and limb pistoning during ambulation....

  With computer-aided design (CAD) becoming commonplace in O&P, it behooves us to examine whether our existing processes are still the most efficient when it comes to the manual tasks...

  Having been a technician, lab manager, and central fabrication lab owner for more than thirty years, I've had the opportunity to work with some great clinicians and customers. They've...

  Imagine you have plastic in the oven, about to come out, and you hear the vacuum pump make a horrible noise just before it loses suction. That happened at...

As the popularity of 3D printing gains momentum in the prosthetics industry, some O&P professionals have considered purchasing a 3D printer to print their own custom-fitted sockets. While 3D-printed sockets...

Figure 1. I treated a patient with cerebral palsy during his physical therapy appointment. He had extreme wrist flexion contractures, elbow contractures, and hypertonia. The physical therapist had tried serial...

A patient who has a transmetatarsal amputation and severe inversion supination on the affected foot came into the office for a CROW boot (Figure 1). He was wearing a soft...

Anyone who has worked in O&P for any length of time knows that figuring out how to manage fabrication can be quite a challenge and is something that needs a...