Everyone is unique, and for people with an upper limb difference, their limb presentation is unique to them. No one has the exact same length of millimeters of their residual limb, or the same reason for their amputation, or the same functional capacity with their residual limb. This is why our Arm Dynamic’s centers only employ upper limb specialists upper limb differences are so distinctive from lower limb differences that they require a clinician who treats hundreds of upper limb patients a year.

Inside the world of unique upper limb differences, there’s another subset of people who have a condition, need, or preference that takes a little more experimentation to fit than an “average” limb difference. These are the patients who challenge our clinical teams and our clinical teams love a challenge. Read on to learn more about these specific patients and their needs and the solutions we provided.

Function Over Length

For our patients Wendi and Craig, we got to know them and listened to their needs before determining their best option. Wendi had a snowboarding accident that shattered her elbow. The seriousness of her injury, combined with her diabetes, meant that her arm never healed correctly. After years of pain and 20 surgical procedures, she decided to have an amputation. Afterward, she was happy to be free from the pain and limitations of her arm, and she focused on how to go about her life with one arm. But she felt she was being held back, especially at the gym. One reason she hesitated about getting a prosthesis was that after all that time with her damaged arm, she had learned how to get along without using it, and once it was gone, she enjoyed having the freedom of nothing hanging from her right side. What was the solution?

Wendi Parker Prosthesis Details-1

Her prosthetist’s answer: a short arm. Wendi has her socket (that uses a BOA lanyard system to stay on, not a harness or suction), a locking elbow hinge, a four-way wrist and her terminal device. Now she can do a full workout at the gym, and have an easier time at her job at Trader Joe’s.

Wendi Parker Working at Trader Joe's with her custom transhumeral prosthesis

Our patient Craig needed a similar solution, though for a different reason. Craig has neuromas and other residual limb pain that cause his arm to feel like its constantly experiencing the “pins and needles” sensation or sometimes worse. Any significant weight on his residual limb makes the pain increase, meaning that his initial prosthesis (that was fit by a different prosthetic care provider) could only be worn for a few minutes at a time. What Craig needed was an ultra-light option something that wouldn’t increase his pain and allow him to get back to his hobbies of fishing, hunting and canoeing. Well, how do you decrease weight? One way is to eliminate the forearm of the prosthesis, so that’s what we did. Now Craig is back to actively pursuing his hobbies.

CraigH-9

Getting Creative

In general, if you have a partial hand difference and you want fingers that move, there are two options one, you have enough residual finger left to control the prosthetic finger, like here:

P1280392.2021-01-08 10_42_22

Or two, you have passive fingers: that you position with your other hand or by pushing the fingers against a stable surface like a tabletop.

Mark Betters 15-400-130

But what if there was another way? Well, one unique option is this wrist-driven device:

Jaffrey Colbert Wrist Driven PH Prosthesis-1

Jeffrey can flex his wrist up and down, and when he does so, those two prosthetic fingers come closer together, pinching and holding what he needs. He can also use his sound hand to open and close his fingers, which makes the device a hybrid prosthesis both body-powered and passive. You can see Jeffrey using this unique design in his patient progress video.

Rachel is another patient who has a wrist-driven device. She has a congenital hand difference and has had several surgeries on her hand in recent years. While she’s still determining what works best for her, you can watch her discuss her device in this video at 10:45 if you’d like to skip to her section:

Harness Free

Our patient, Sherri, has a congenital above elbow limb difference. Most people with an above elbow limb difference need to wear a harness to keep the prosthesis in place. But Sherri said no to a harness. After spending her childhood dealing with a harness, her body just wasn’t able to support it anymore. So, we made her a suction suspension socket one of a kind:

Sherri McCall on her scooter - Emily - with her transhumeral myoelectric prosthesis

What challenge can you bring us? Whatever it is, we’re up for it! If you or someone you know needs specialized upper limb prosthetic care, please contact us. If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so below.

We think Sherri, who has worn a prosthesis her whole life, put it best: “Arm Dynamics has provided the best care I’ve had because they focus exclusively on upper limb prosthetics.”

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