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Most patients will benefit from post-op casting to help prevent injury to their stumps and to promote faster healing.

Once a patient is amputated below the knee, there is a very high risk of falling and injuring the stump. Post-op casting or rigid removable dressing, (RRD) will help that from happening by providing a hard protective covering. After surgery, patients have a tendency to forget they are amputated and will try to stand normally, which causes them to fall. Patients will usually fall to the amputated side causing bruising or even splitting the incision open.

The best and most simple treatment would be to apply a RRD. The RRD can be applied at the completion of amputation in surgery or within a day or two after surgery. The easiest way to make a rigid removable dressing is by using casting material. The cast is made on the patient with enough room that he or she can remove it, but it is snug enough to stay put and provide protection. It is held on with a strap so that when the patient’s stump reduces in size, the RRD will still stay on for protection. These RRD are usually below the knee so the patient can still bend their knee.

The RRD also aids in healing due to the use of a stump shrinker that is usually worn under, which can accelerated the shrinking process, but if a stump shrinker is not worn, the RRD still helps in shrinking and shaping the stump.

There are a couple different types of post-op dressing, which are prefabricated out of plastic or other materials. For example, Ossur has come out with a vacuum formed RRD that is great for post-op patients that still may be in the hospital or are still pretty sedentary.

Patients that get RRD’s usually heal faster due to the compression of the RRD. Contact Central Brace & Limb Co., 1-800-277-LIMB to meet with or talk to one of our expert Prosthetists about the benefits of a rigid removable dressing.