Fig. 18.—The bandage completed.
THE LOWER EXTREMITY.
For adults the most useful width for the rollers is 3 inches, and the length the ordinary one of 8 yards.
The Foot is usually bandaged without covering the heel, and the bandage is begun as follows:—
The roller being held in the right hand for the right foot, or in the left hand for the left foot; the unoccupied hand takes the end, and passing it under the sole, brings it up on the back of the foot just behind the toes, where it is made fast by carrying the roller outwards over the back. When one turn is completed, the bandaging is continued by reverses until the metatarsus is covered, then one or two figures of 8 round the foot and ankle carry the bandage to the leg, where it proceeds upwards by spiral turns round the small of the leg, and by reverses up the calf. The reverses lie at equal distance up the leg, on the muscles, not over the bone, that the skin be not pinched between the crease of the bandage and the bone. When the calf is passed, the roller is continued by figures of 8 above and below the knee, until that joint is covered in, then by reverses up the thigh to the groin, where the bandage terminates by a spica round the body (see page [9]). This is the ordinary bandage for the lower limb. There are some varieties for particular parts, these are:—
To cover the Heel.—Holding the roller as for the foot, pass the end behind the heel, bring it out by the outside over the front of the ankle-joint, and complete the turn with the roller. In doing this, the point of the heel must catch the middle of the bandage. If the foot is a long one, the roller should be three inches broad; but a narrower bandage is more easily fitted on a small foot. After the first turn, the bandaging is continued by carrying the roller in figures of 8 round the foot and ankle, passing alternately above and below the first turn until the ankle is covered as in fig. 19.
Fig. 19.—Covering the Heel.
To bandage a Toe.—Take two turns round the foot, with a bandage one inch wide, then go round the toe to be raised, and back again round the foot. This figure of 8 lifts a toe above the rest if taken from the dorsal, and depresses it if taken from the plantar surface.