A covering device for a jointed artificial limb includes a covering layer covering the artificial limb. The covering layer can be made of semirigid PU foam. The covering layer has a screen-like flexible portion adjacent to the joint of the artificial limb. The flexible portion includes a plurality of slits.
A unitary foot and shin component for a lower limb prosthesis has a one piece thermoplastic endoskeletal foot keel and shin member and a continuous flexible cosmesis. The cosmesis includes a resilient foot body which is molded directly onto the keel so as to embed the keel, and an integral flexible and hollow shell which surrounds the shin member but is spaced from it. By forming the foot body and the hollow shell as a single polyurethane molding, the foot and shin can be supplied as a single component, ready for connection to a stump socket and alignment coupling.
An endoprosthesis for below knee amputations includes a socket, a foam-covered pylon, and a prosthetic foot. A prosthetic knee is added for above knee amputations. A plastic sleeve is formed, heated, and stretched until it has a size sufficient to ensleeve the endoprothesis. The plastic sleeve is maintained at that enlarged size and cooled so that the resulting sleeve is substantially inelastic and is adapted to receive the endoprosthesis. The plastic sleeve is heated in areas where it does not conform exactly to the endoprosthesis until it shrinks and conforms exactly to the endoprosthesis, including the contour of the foam-covered pylon. The plastic sleeve then reveals all of the structural details of the prosthetic foam but does not apply compressive force to the foam. Lines of demarcation therefore do not form at the locations where the foam meets the prosthetic socket, the prosthetic knee, or the prosthetic foot.
An elongate bandage that is predominantly stretchable in the longitudinal direction enables readily applied development of an elastic surgical limb sleeve that can be rendered locally inextensible. The bandage features multiple longitudinally spaced rows of transverse slits which are in staggered offsetting interlace, from one to the next-adjacent row, such that when a circumferential wrap of the bandage completes a sleeve, the multiple slits are arrayed parallel to the axis of the limb. The limb sleeve gently conforms to the shape of an affected or injured joint or other body part, and the gentle conformance is operative to convert slits into ventilation openings. One or more strips of relatively inelastic hook material applied to the outer surface of a developed sleeve not only complete the sleeve but, when desired by the surgeon, can exert localized pressure to the injured area either directly or indirectly as in the treatment of swelling or in the control of bleeding.
A method of making an external protective and cosmetic covering for use on an endoskeletal or exoskeletal prosthesis, that has toes included in it. The skin is produced on a mold having toes cut into it. The mold is narrower and undersized in the actual foot prosthesis. The mold is modified to have toes cut into it with the definition of the toes greatly exaggerated to emphasize the normal contours and definitions of the natural nail and natural nail bed.
A novelty sleeve for simulating a muscular arm and having an elongated opening through the sleeve for a person to slip the arm into the sleeve, and the sleeve has enlarged portions therealong for depicting enlarged arm muscles.