ORTHOSIS PAPER PATTERN
RESTING HAND SPLINT

Paper pattern:

A pattern is a template that is done before moulding.

Why Paper pattern?

Before moulding any thermoplastic on your patient’s hand, we recommend you to begin with a pattern. A good pattern allows you to judge the correct amount of material needed for the specific orthosis. And it helps you to envision the shape and position of the finished product.

Steps involved :

Draw an outline with the patient's hand
Mark the anatomical landmarks
Adjustments to the pattern
Cutting out the pattern
Trimming

1.Draw outline

First, position the patient’s hand palmar side down on a paper towel. If the patient cannot place their involved hand on the paper towel, you can draw an outline of the non-involved hand or draw a pattern of your own hand. You can always go back and make adjustments directly on the paper towel prior to cutting out the thermoplastic material.

Make sure that your patient’s hand is placed in a neutral wrist position and not radially or ulnarly deviated.
You can assess this by checking for straight alignment of the forearm bones with the third metacarpal.
Place the fingers close together and the thumb in wide abduction.
Draw an outline of the forearm, wrist, thumb and fingers with the pen or marker angled straight down on the paper
You can add extra 1/2-1 inch in the paper so that it will cover the circumference of FA (Forearm)

2.Anatomical Landmarks

Marking the anatomical landmarks is an important step in orthosis as it decides the proximal and distal edges of the splint. As we are looking at the dorsal hand, we have to imagine where the volar landmarks are placed.

These are some of the most helpful anatomical landmarks to mark:

At 2/3 the length of the forearm – mark both radial and ulnar sides.
The MCP joints of the little finger and index finger – the MCP joints of the little finger and index finger help you to find the distal palmar crease, which is angled to the ulnar side.
The first web space – often a thin wedge of thermoplastic material wraps around through this web space to anchor the orthosis.
The narrowest part of the wrist – adjust the width of the pattern to accommodate to the narrow wrist or else you will have to do a lot of trimming.
The thumb IP joint – thumb orthoses typically allow for unrestricted IP joint motion.
The PIP joints of each finger – MCP joint blocking orthoses typically allow unrestricted PIP motion.

3.Pattern adjustment

After drawing the relevant anatomical landmarks, remove the patient’s hand, and draw your specific orthosis pattern lines. The pattern itself may come from a picture or from your own idea of which specific joints need to be included in the orthosis.

Cut out the pattern and check the fit on the patient’s hand in the desired position. Draw any additional markings on the pattern to indicate necessary adjustments. You can add arrows to increase length or width, or make lines indicating where the pattern needs to be trimmed or shortened.

Making adjustments to the pattern will save time and cost when cutting out the thermoplastic material.

4.Cutting the pattern for orthosis

Once you have checked the paper towel pattern for fit, place it on an appropriately sized piece of thermoplastic material. Draw an outline, but leave enough space for cutting away the marked lines. These should not appear on the finished orthosis. You can use this marker to draw the outline, it will easily wipe off later on.

Prior to cutting out the material, determine whether you should preheat it and need common things for doing this Dorsal Resting hand Splint