Hand Physio

Hi there fellow physios. It continues to be great to read the ongoing exchange on this forum and now I am wondering if anyone can assist me.

I am about to expand my London practice into the realm of hand therapy. We are going to set up and entire room dedicated to hand therapy with various heating and thermoplastic molding baths etc. Also what seem to be the best thermoplastic templates out there for ready molding?

I am wondering if anyone can recommend and excellent piece of equipment that they have found invaluable in treating hands or making splints. I am trying to make this new treatment room as comfortable and exciting for the therapist as it is useful for the patient. Any and all assistance or suggestions welcome. Web links appreciated as well :hat

Dear Superfizz
I am practising hand therapy in the UAE. We tend to use a company by the name of Homecraft Ability One (UK) and NorthCoast Medical (US). Smith and Nephew used to supply us but no longer (not sure in UK now).
My suggestion is to go shopping especially in a toy shop and hardware shop. Things like coloured cones, music toys, basketball for kids etc are great to play with, I mean treat patients with for functional hand activities. Hardware shop can supply things like nuts and bolts for fine motor activities. Pretty much just go shopping and anything that strikes you as being good for treatment then get. But be aware of expense.

Good luck

I was on a hand splinting course this weekend. The materials we were using were fantastic. They were really easy to use and had 100% memory so if you were unhappy with the result all you had to do was stick the splint back into the water bath and it reverted back to a plain sheet to start again. The materials were also very light but once set were very supportive. We mainly used Proform plus, orfit and orfi lite all availabe from promedics. Good Luck:)

Thanks for the feedback so far. I am used to using thermoplastics from Smith and Nephew, but what about a heating bath. Has anyone found an ideal sized heating device? Also any comments on moleskin, gel, silicon coatings for the splints and pressure areas.

I have been out of the acute setting for a while now and materials have probably moved on a bit. Can anyone recommend any of these materials and the reasons why they find them useful.
thanks again :hat