United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

anyone use Dyna Splints on their children? Can anyone tell me about them? My daughter has LOBPP and she cant bend her elbow or supenate. She is doing E-stim to the bicept but it seems to make the tricept fire. She is 7 years old. Thanks!

Hi Sandi....

I'm not sure that I understood what's really going on with your daughter....

Not bending an elbow or not supinating... are her biceps innervated? Has anyone done an EMG to see if her biceps are innervated?

A dynasplint is a dynamic splint - this means that once you put it on, it is constantly putting tiny amounts of pressure into the joint in either flexion or extension (it can be set up to go either way). In your daughter's case - it seems that you might want it to do flexion - to get her elbow to bend.

But it sounds to me that you first have to get a diagnosis on why she can't bend her elbow or supinate. If there is no innervation then no splint will help that unfortunately.

Now about the splint itself, Maia had a dynasplint and it didn't work for her because of the fit. Her arm would swell during the day from edema (from decreased circulation) and at night when the fluids normalized a bit and were reduced, the splint would turn in all sorts of directions and might even fall off. It is a mechanism and two velcro straps.

A year or so later we had to do another splinting so we tried the Ultraflex splint - same type of dynamic splint with the exception that it is custom made and MOLDED to fit your daughter's arm. This made a huge difference because even if Maia's arm got smaller overnight - it was formfit and the landmarks of her arm stayed in their right position and the splint never shifted. She also said it was much more comfortable and she felt more secure in it.

I did find out later from a therapist that her dynasplint was way too big for her and that made me quite angry because why did their orthotist fit her incorrectly? The dynapslint orthotist (works for them) was extremely unattentive. With the ultraflex splint, we chose the orthotist and follow up was much better.

The shape and form of the ultraflex can change with the changes in the child. Whereas the velcro - well there's not much you can do to change the velcro.

That's our personal experience....
you can both splints here at http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/splints.html

I hope you get some answers about her biceps and can you let us know?
-francine

Hi Francine.....
Yes Meg has had an EMG. Her bicept is innervated. She was at TCH on May 19th and they were going to do a nerve transfer but when they opened her up and did more testing they found they only needed to remove scar tissue from the median nerve. They said there was nothing they could see that was keeping her bicept from working now. She has had the Primary and the Mod-Quad . I keep thinking maybe she needs to be "reprogrammed" ha ha The theory behind the dyna splint is that maybe using it with the e-stim, like as the bicept fires let the arm bend with the splint and using her tricept(which is extra strong)we will tell her to extend as the e-stim goes off. Does this sound right??? I am hoping it will work. I dont know yet if they will okay it thru the insurance or the doctors, it is just an idea so far.

so sandi - if I get you right...using it as a therapy/strengthening tool? that sounds very interesting!

Sandi - you were the mom I never got to meet - Maia had surgery that day too!

Hi Francine.......
Yes, that is what we are hoping to use it as. When we were at therapy yesterday we didnt get an answer from the doctor yet. Hoping for a one month trial with the dyna splint. I am really excited about the therory behind it. It will hopefully give her some control of her arm to feed herself, etc. PLUS re-educating her to how the arm should move. I hope this is a good thing, I will let everyone know if it works! I knew you were at the hospital on May 19th and we totally missed each other. I am working on $$$$ for airfare so I can meet everyone in Silver Lake!!!!!! Cant wait.

Sandi-
Have you thought about botox to the triceps? If you stop the triceps, then the biceps can fire without the triceps being overpowering.

While the triceps were botoxed, we used estim on the biceps and LOTS of therapy.

Good luck,
claudia

Hello, My 8 month old daughter has right arm BPI. she has been using the dyna splint for about a month now. We have noticed that the muscles in her arm that were tight, are already showing signs of returning to normal. It is a bit ackward for her, because she is trying so many things with her arm, so i have found that it is best to make her wear it during her naps. she only has to wear it for 3 hours twice a day. she uses the infant size now,( it dosn't grow with the child), but there is a toddler size that will grow with the child. I hope i have helped you. feel free to contact me. Amanda

My daughter is almost 3 and we are working on new splint for her to help w/ flexion. When we were told to get splint for Bicep flexion too, it was said to get Dyna splint too, but we had to go through another Orthotics company. We went today and Orthotist is making a splint for her that will fit well and help w/ flexion. It seems like there are more contractured biceps than ones like our kids have which is w/ the flexion part, you know? Peyt should get this week or in a few weeks. Sounds interesting what they are wanting to try.

Thank you so much! We see our OT today and hopefully we will get news about the dynasplint. Dr. Nath asked us to wait till Sept. to use Botox, if there was no improvement. I am so glad to hear from you...Thanks