CUSTOM SILICONE LINERS FOR UPPER EXTREMITY PROSTHETICS

This paper is intended to illustrate some new fitting techniques for the upper extremity amputee using two types of custom silicone liners manufactured at the Bloorview MacMillan Children’s Centre in Toronto. The need for custom silicone liners for upper extremity clients was discovered with the attempted fitting of off-the-shelf silicone liners. These liners were not able to provide a total contact fit. Many of the prosthetic clients at the Centre have various levels of amputation that are congenital in nature. With the wide variety of shapes (and sizes) presented by our client’s residual limbs custom silicone liners were indicated over off-the-shelf liners. Two techniques for fabricating custom silicone liners have been developed at the BMCC. The two fabricating procedures are described as custom injected and custom rolled silicone liners. There are advantages and disadvantages to both techniques. Both of these techniques offer greater accuracy in achieving total contact suction suspension for the upper extremity amputee regardless of the complexity of the limb presented.