Exercise. Move your uninjured, but swollen fingers or toes gently and often. Moving them often will prevent stiffness.

They’re more porous than plaster casts, which allows your doctor to take X-rays of the injured area without removing the cast. This also means that fiberglass casts are more breathable, making them much more comfortable to wear. This makes the skin underneath the cast less vulnerable to irritation.b.An excellent alternative to plaster casts in this situation is a Jones compression splint, as described in Chapter 7, III.B and C. Pressure. Keep pressure and weight off your cast. If you have a walking cast for a leg injury, don’t walk on it until it’s fully hardened.

Immobilize as few joints as possible, but as a general rule, one immobilizes the joint above and below a fresh fracture. Although these bandages were an improvement over Larrey's method, they were far from ideal. They required a long time to apply and dry and there was often shrinkage and distortion. A great deal of interest had been aroused in Europe around 1800 by a British diplomat, consul William Eton, who described a method of treating fractures that he had observed in Turkey. He noted that gypsum plaster (plaster of Paris) was moulded around the patient's leg to cause immobilization. If the cast became loose due to atrophy or a reduction in swelling, then additional gypsum plaster was added to fill the space. Adapting the use of plaster of Paris for use in hospitals, however, took some time. In 1828, doctors in Berlin were treating leg fractures by aligning the bones in a long narrow box, which they filled with moist sand. Substitution of plaster of Paris for the sand was the next logical step. Such plaster casts did not succeed however as the patient was confined to bed due to the casts being heavy and cumbersome. Like plaster, fiberglass materials come in rolls. Strips are moistened and applied to form the cast. The cast will appear rough after it has dried. How do you relieve pain and swelling after the cast or splint is applied? This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( October 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

More plaster cast tips:

To allow room for swelling, the rigid part of a splint or “half cast” (left) does not wrap all the way around the injured area. It is held in place with an elastic bandage or other material (right). Materials Cast dryers blow warm to hot air around a plaster cast. They are generally not necessary. An exposed cast and a fan work just as well and are safer. Cast dryers can burn skin and tend to hasten the drying time of the outer layers only. Use cool water for larger casts when more time is needed to apply all the plaster or fiberglass, and use warm water for smaller casts or splints. Never use hot water because enough heat can be generated to burn the patient. 9 Similarly, do not place limbs with fresh casts onto plastic-covered pillows; these tend to hamper heat dispersion significantly and may result in burning. If the patient complains of burning, it is prudent to remove the cast immediately and reapply using cooler water. Synthetic casts offer a lot of advantages over plaster casts for both doctors and the people wearing them. We do NOT decide if an item is or isn’t exempt & we don’t make any more or less money if we charge you VAT or we don’t charge you VAT.

Fiberglass casts are much more waterproof than plaster casts, but not completely. While the outer layer is waterproof, the soft padding underneath is not. In some cases, your doctor may be able to put a waterproof liner under the cast, which makes the entire cast waterproof. Do not walk on a cast unless you have been told it is safe to do so and have been given a plaster shoe. StayGuard™ orthopedic casting bandages are used in hospitals, clinics, for first aid, and for any other medical application that requires a part of the body to be immobilized and stabilized until the healing process has concluded. Available is various colors and sizes, these bandages are an alternative to plaster of paris bandages. INTERESTED IN MORE PRODUCTS? The splint or cast must fit the shape of the injured arm or leg correctly to provide the best possible support. Generally, the splint or cast also covers the joint above and below the broken bone.A cast that includes the trunk of the body and one or more limbs is a spica cast, just as is a cast that includes the "trunk" of the arm and one or more fingers or the thumb. For example, a shoulder spica includes the trunk of the body and one arm, usually to the wrist or hand. Shoulder spicas are almost never seen today, having been replaced with specialized splints and slings that provide early mobility of the injury to avoid joint stiffness after healing. Keep the cast clean and dry. A hair dryer with a cool setting may be used to dry a fiberglass cast if it becomes damp. Call your doctor if the cast does not dry or if the skin under the cast becomes wet. An orthopedic cast, or simply cast, is a shell, frequently made from plaster or fiberglass, that encases a limb (or, in some cases, large portions of the body) to stabilize and hold anatomical structures ‍— ‍most often a broken bone (or bones), in place until healing is confirmed. It is similar in function to a splint.