You may have heard of the new innovations in adjustable prosthetic sockets.
Several companies are now offering sockets that can be adjusted by the patient, on the fly, to keep fitting your socket the way you want to fit: maybe a little snugger, maybe a little looser if you’re going on a long car ride or just need a break.
How Adjustable Sockets Improve Comfort Throughout the Day
Most people’s limbs get a little smaller during the day, and they start to feel loose. These new sockets allow to keep them fitting nice and snug throughout the day. Remember, we want to keep the Socket nice and snug, so you don’t get a sore, particularly on the bottom of the residual limb over the tibia bone. That’s a bad place to get a sore.
A Look Back: The Original Adjustable Leather Sockets
When I first started hanging around my dad’s prosthetic shop in 1975, we were making some really great adjustable sockets! We made them out of leather, which was a great material to work with. The patients would just lace up the sockets like a hockey skate or a tennis shoe, and the material was cool and overtime took on the shape of the person‘s residual limb. We never saw sores with leather sockets.
It just goes to prove that “everything’s old that’s new again”
I love these adjustable sockets and use all of them in my practice. If you’re interested in getting out of a socket, that’s rigid and hot and doesn’t breathe and doesn’t feel part of you and feels loose one day and too tight the next, learn more at learn more at American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists or give us a call 917-261-2830 and ask us about how we can make an adjustable socket for you!
