DYNAMIC ADJUSTABLE SHOULDER ORTHOSIS WITH REHABILITATION BY ADDUCTION

摘要

A shoulder orthosis is provided for maintenance of a patient's arm in a postoperative shoulder immobilization posture in the context of tearing of rotator cuff muscles. The orthosis comprises a belt, an arm splint, and a column member with axial mechanical spring continuously adjustable by a manual adjustment handle and interconnecting the belt to the splint and biasing the splint to an abduction upper limit position. The orthosis provides stable support for the patient's forearm around a horizontal plane, while allowing pivoting movement of the patient's injured arm about a vertical axis intersecting the patient's elbow and approaching the patient's torso in a transverse plane. This orthosis also allows a cyclical back and forth movement of the splint, the free downward movement of the patient's arm by his healthy muscles, assisted by the adductor muscles against the bias of the adjustable spring without active movement of the rotator cuff. A control handle incrementally locks the spring in a selected retracted position of the axial spring. The axial spring column member remains closely spaced against the patient's torso during movements of the splint relative to the patient's waist belt.