UPPER EXTREMITY.
Bandage for the Fingers and Thumb.
Apparatus.—A ¾-inch wide roller.
The fingers are bandaged to prevent œdema when splints are tightly attached to the fore or upper arm. A roller ¾ inch wide is passed once round the wrist and then carried over the back of the hand to the little finger; then wound in spirals round it to the tip and returned up the finger, completed by a figure of 8 round the wrist and the root of the finger, and returned to the wrist before being brought across the back of the hand to the next finger, to which it is applied in the same manner till the four fingers are covered. It is a good precaution to place a shred of cotton wool between each finger before carrying the figure of 8 turn round the root; it prevents the bandages from chafing the tender skin.
The thumb is bandaged rather differently: the roller is commenced in the same way round the wrist, but the first turn is carried at once beyond the last joint, turned once or twice round the last phalanx, and continued by reverses to the metacarpo-phalangeal joint; the ball of the thumb is then covered by figures of 8 round the thumb and wrist. This is called the spica for the thumb.
Fig. 13.—Spica for the Thumb.
This plan is sometimes employed to compress bleeding wounds of the ball of the thumb, and is applied without previously covering the phalanges, as in fig. 13.
The Hand and Arm.
Apparatus.—1. A roller 2¼ inches wide for an adult, but narrower for a child.