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BODYCAST - THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE CSOT Fibreglass toe platform cast By Bill Satterfield, OTC ABSTRACT One of the surgeons in our clinic has been practicing for nearly 50 years. When we see a patient with a metatarsal fracture, he always laments that he just can’t make a proper toe platform cast with fiberglass. His goal is to extend the bottom surface of the cast past the end of the patient’s toes while stopping the top of the cast well short of the MCP joints. The cast is built and then, after it has cured sufficiently, is cut to shape and then padded. Using the following technique, we can come close to satisfying our surgeon in only about 10 minutes. We use stockinet, cotton cast padding and 3M cast material. Since most of these casts are usually meant to be weight-bearing, we use a cast stand to ensure a neutral ankle position. The stockinet is sized and placed on the patient’s leg with one end well over the knee and the other end coming about an inch past the ends of the toes. With the patient sitting on the edge of the exam table, the end of the stockinet is rolled back over the foot and the foot is placed in the stand. It is important that the end of the stand comes only to about the level of the MCP joints. Next, roll the stockinet back over the toe and stand.
This abstract is a portion of the article
which appears in the Winter 2005 issue of BodyCast. |
