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Relieving painful “crutch hands”by Chris Slack, Inventor of the C9
“Patient heal thyself”
‘Crutch Hand’ is an extremely prevalent condition with thus far, few solutions that actually work. The inventor, engineer Chris Slack says he was as surprised as anyone to get a patent on the invention, saying, “it is just so simple”. But then the best ideas are. Anyone unfortunate enough to end up having to get around on crutches is all too familiar with the condition – so it needs no further explanation. However, this article proves that British creativity is still alive and kicking, and it doesn’t necessarily require massive research budgets to solve a major medical problem.
This article explains how a rugby injury led to the invention of a simple device that allows standard crutches to be modified to prevent painful and blistered hands. Man has evolved over millions of years to walk on feet. This becomes painfully evident within a few hours of receipt of a pair of crutches. This article explains how our patient was able to use his engineering skills to modify the standard ‘crutch’ to meet a real, previously unmet medical need.
Like many roads to enlightenment this all started with a painful experience. During rugby training I was sprinting on to a pass that was slightly too far in front of me, and not being as flexible as I once was - “ping”, my Achilles tendon separated from my calf muscle.
In Stoke Mandeville Hospital whilst my leg was being set in plaster (fixed toe-right-down to allow said body parts to re-connect over 12 weeks) I was thinking about how difficult life would be but not suspecting for one moment that the real terror lay in the crutches, not in the plaster.
I was issued with a set of standard NHS elbow crutches but was only able to get about four paces (or leaps of faith) before I had to sit down, exhausted and with already sore hands. I noticed various posters on the wall opposite advertising all sorts of medical appliances but unfortunately nothing for “crutch hands”, although I did part with £24.99 for a waterproof cover for my leg for use in the bath (never in fact used since my left leg/plaster perched neatly on the side of bath, a factor which also allowed me to drive an automatic car during the period.)
As I work with a team of experienced engineers I discussed my problem with them and asked for suggestions. By this time the balls of my hands were blistered and weeping, making walking on the crutches with my entire bodyweight distributed through my hands a genuine nightmare. I telephoned the hospital for advice and they recommend taping an old hand towel on to the handles. This did give some relief but the towel got dirty quickly and fell off after a day or two.
I was beginning to think that I could not be the only person with this problem and that there was a real medical need for a solution. At this point I spoke to Dr Barry Sandbank who at the time was the New Product Development Manager for SSL International. We met up and took a good look at my crutches and my hands, did some slow motion walking, and both suddenly realised what the problem was. It was apparent that there were two connected issues, namely,
- Compression of hand skin and bone due to the full body weight being absorbed entirely by two tiny patches of hand (via a hard plastic handle)
- Abrasion to the hand as hard plastic (often slightly rubberised) pinches a hot (often sweaty) hand, which is forced to rock across the handle as the crutches move from “pointing forwards and down” to “backwards and down” as each step (or vault) is made.
It seemed that an obvious solution to point 1 would be a foam or rubber tube to spread the weight and absorb impact (like those on gym equipment… imagine bench pressing a hundred kilos with narrow metal poles in your hands where the rubber handles were missing, several hours a day for 12 weeks and crutch life becomes easier to imagine).
However a foam/rubber type material would abrade the skin (making issue 2 even worse) and possibly set off all sorts of skin allergies (latex being a fairly common one), so clearly two materials would be needed.
What better than a toweling tube designed to fit a crutch handle, with an extra 10mm of foam tube outside it, secured in a T lock behind the crutch stem with Velcro. This would be washable, would keep the palms dry, would offer natural abrasion mitigating properties and, funnily enough, was the original homespun recommendation from the Nursing Coalface!
The first production run and website launch for my idea took place in summer 2009 and initial customer feedback on the C9 has been more than encouraging. It still seems amazing to me that the difficulties posed by the use of crutches had not been addressed previously by medical appliance manufacturers as the solution to scores of people suffering from sore hands is a simple yet highly effective device.
Find out more about the C9.
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