January 6th, 1999
Dear Todd:
When you talk about vinyl application in O&P, probably you talk about
the “softened” PVC’s (Poly Vinyl Chloride’s). If this is
so, you’ll find the problem related to the softeners in the vinyl. They
are known to search for alternatives in chemical bindings even after the
vinyl is “cured”. So some materials should not be brought close
to such vinyls and some people’s skin may over-react to this
component of the vinyl. Probably you’d have to study the libraries or
publications to find out more about this.
I do not have any literature sources handy right now, but if you insist
I’ll start to search for it.
There is good news too: Neither epoxy, nor acrylic resin contains any
vinyl component (at least it doesn’t make sense and I don’t know of such
content). The only possible scenario would be grinding PVC down (would be
a difficult and sticky task because it’s melting) to a powder and
using it as a filler – which I do not know of in any of the O&P
resins.
The PE-Lites are a polyethylene (PE)-based closed cell , dense foam
material. They do normally not contain any soft PVC’s either to my
knowledge, but to be completely sure I would consult the saftey data
sheets and/or the manufacturers directly. You may want to do that
anyway.
Hoping that I could help just a little I’ll add an additional sentence
for the lawyers around the corner:
My advice is designed to provide accurate information in regard to the
subject matter covered. It is given however, understanding that I am not
familiar or engaged with the details of your case or the materials you
use and I cannot be held responsible for any results or side effects
based on the advice rendered. For detailed information on material
properties of specific materials the services of the manufacturers or
chemical experts have to be sought. For detailed information on
physiological or pathological reactions or on biocompatibility of
materials in contact with the human body or parts thereof specialized
medical advice has to be sought.
(;-) I hope you understand – we live in the USA!
Best regards
Wieland Kaphingst
ortho – bio – med . LLc –
marketing-education-design
At 02:03 PM 1/6/99 -0500, Todd Norton wrote:
>I am currently fitting a 17 month old child with a below knee
prosthesis.
A0 He
>is allergic to, among other things, wool and vinyl.
A0 I am looking
for
>different options for socket materials.
A0 Does anyone know how much
vinyl is in
>some of the different resins, plastics or “pelite”
materials?
A0 I am having a
>surprisingly difficult time finding out this information.
A0 Any help
would be
>greatly appreciated.
>Todd Norton, C.P.
>
