AOPA Annual Meeting in Reno, Nevada
This year's AOPA meeting was well attended but there was no special "buzz" regarding any particular aspect of the program or the exhibit hall. Although I sat in on as many scientific sessions as possible, none that I heard were particularly noteworthy. There were several clever new products on display, but most I had already seen in Iceland, and they have been highlighted earlier in this Corner.
There were a few products that caught my eye in Reno. There seemed to be a lot of interest in the new adjustable heel-height foot being shown by Freedom Innovations. What made it unique was the integrated "slide-n-rotate" mechanism that kept the length of the anterior lever arm nearly constant, from a flat heel to a 2 inch [50 mm] height. Since it is combined with a carbon fiber keel, this should result in a foot that is dynamically responsive regardless of the footwear chosen.
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The New Generation is one of my "can't miss" exhibitors because they always have some new and clever, timesaving tool or product that other practitioners have found useful. This meeting, they were showing the Drill-Out ® power extractors. The M-10 size would be perfect for drilling out that stubborn, salt-stained foot bolt that has rusted in place even though the prosthesis "has never been anywhere near the ocean"! The Drill-Out ® is a left-hand bit combined with an extractor on the same shaft, made by a company called Alden Corporation.
For the larger sizes, the bit and extractor are machined in series, so you simply chuck the tool in the chuck of a drill that is slowly running in reverse and start drilling. Once the bit has penetrated a few millimeters, the extractor will grab the broken bolt and back it out.
You can contact TNG at 800-327-3036 or fax them at 301-587-2750 for more details, or go online to the Alden Corporation site at www.aldn.com/index.htm . Alden also makes an equally useful tool to remove screws with stripped heads call X-Out™. Click here to download a video clip showing how this works, or visit the Alden web site.
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Scott Orthotic Labs was showing a couple of clever modifications to familiar orthoses. One was a leather, prefabricated calf corset attached to a rocker boot they call Zero-G™, intended to partially un-weight the at-risk foot. The patient inserts a 12 mm "donning pad" inside the foot section and then uses hook and loop closures to snug up the calf corset. When the "donning pad" is removed, the foot is partially un-weighted and the padded foot cover is wrapped over the dorsum of the foot.
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They also have modified the traditional hyperextension orthosis by adding ratcheting one-way hinges at the lateral midlines. This allows the patient to fasten the lumbar strap easily, even while seated, with the trunk in a slightly flexed position. The patient then pushes gently on the sternal and pubic pads, and the orthosis clicks into progressively more extension and holds the spine in the corrected position.
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