Shoulder and arm support for patients with brachial plexus injuries

Project Overview

Our project is a splint design for a patient with injury to the brachial plexus nerves. These nerves innervate the shoulder and arm muscles. The specific patient is someone with significant damage, an avulsion injury, with no muscle support for his shoulder (deltoid, rotator cuff, scapular ms) and no biceps function or elbow flexion. He has tried numerous sling designs which do not work, since it is difficult to support the arm without binding the rest of the body. Brachial plexus injuries are the result of motorcycle accidents, snowmobile accidents, car accidents, gunshot wounds to the shoulder region, and tree limbs falling on the shoulder. The population being targeted is adults.

Team Picture

From Left to Right: Megan, Sarah, Kayla and Nathan

Image

Testing the patients arm weight distribution with a force gauge

Files

Midsemester Presentation (March 7, 2010)
Midsemester Report (March 12, 2010)
Final Report (May 5, 2010)
PDS (May 7, 2010)
Final Poster (May 7, 2010)

Contact Information

Team Members

Sarah Czaplewski - Team Leader
Nathan Retzlaff - Communicator
Megan Halley - BSAC
Kayla Stankevitz - BWIG

Advisor and Client

Prof. Chris Brace - Advisor
Mrs. Karen Blaschke - Client