Customised supports are used to aid healing after injury or surgery; they reduce the amount of movement at the affected joint, preventing overuse of healing structures and providing stability to painful joints. 

A variety of conditions might benefit from splinting, these include:

• Fractures of the arm, wrist or fingers, especially distal radius fractures and metacarpal fractures)
• Nerve Injuries, such as Carpal Tunnel, Cubital Tunnel or Ulnar Nerve Palsy
• Repetitive strain injuries (RSI’s) such as ECU tendonitis, De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis or trigger finger/thumbs
• Wrist, hand, finger and thumb sprains such as Mallet fingers, volar plate injury or UCL thumb injury
• Ligament tears of elbow, wrist, hand- such as TFCC tears, Scapholunate tears, DRUJ instability
• Arthritic conditions which can cause joint deformities and joint pain 
• Post-surgical tendon repairs 

At UrbanRehab all our splints are fabricated in the clinic during your appointment. Your therapist will guide you on the most suitable material and mould the fabric to your affected body part to ensure a comfortable fit.  Splints are always used as part of a larger rehabilitation program, this might include soft tissue release work, electrotherapy and/or progressive strengthening of the affected area. 

There are a wide variety of splint types and fabrication techniques; different types are aimed at different joints or conditions. Below is a list of the most common types of splinting we provide should you want to check if a specific type is available; the list isn’t exhaustive so if you can’t see the type you need – or you aren’t sure what type of splint is suitable – please contact our team and they will be able to guide you 

Finger Splints 

• Mallet Splint

Immobilises DIPJ- zone 1 extension tendon injury, tendon or bony mallet 

• Trigger Finger splint:

Limits movement at the MCPJ to facilitate rest (e.g. A1 Pulley trigger finger) 

• Oval 8 splint:

Immobilises and prevents deformity at the DIPJ/PIPJ of the finger (e.g. trigger finger, volar plate injury, boutonnière deformity, swan neck deformity) 

• Gutter splint: 

Immobilizes DIPJ and/or PIPJ (e.g. zone 3/4 /extensor tendon injury, finger sprains, volar plate injury, pulley injury) 

• Dorsal Blockig splint:

Volar plate injury

• Tube splint:

Central slip injuries 

• Belly gutter splint:

Corrects flexion deformity of the PIPJ

Hand Based splints 

• Short ulnar gutter splint:

Immobilises digital MCPJ (e.g. 4th or 5th MC mid-distal 1/3rd shaft fracture) 

• Colditz splint:

immobilises the thumb CMC (e.g. osteoarthritis) 

• C bar splint: 

Prevents 1st web space contracture

• Anti-claw splint:

Prevents MCPJ hyperextension while allowing for MCPJ flexion for grasp (e.g. ulnar nerve palsy) 

• Short intrinsic plus splint:

Immobilises digital MCPJ (e.g. metacarpal head/neck #, P1 base/shaft fractures) 

• Short thumb spica splint:

Immobilizes thumb MCPJ (e.g. thumb RCL, UCL sprains or tears) 

• Finger extension splint:

Dupuytren’s Contractures

• Yoke/ Relative motion splint:

Sagittal band injuries 

Wrist and forearm based splints 

• Wrist cock up splint:

Immobilises the wrist (e.g. Distal radius fractures, Scapholunate injuries, wrist sprain, repetitive strain injuries) 

• Scaphoid splint:

Immobilises the thumb MCPJ and CMCJ (e.g. scaphoid fracture, bennet fracture) 

• Long ulnar gutter splint:

Immobilizes 4th or 5th digits, CMC joint (e.g. metacarpal shaft/ base fractures) 

• Long intrinsic plus splint:

Immobilises digital MCPJ (e.g. metacarpal shaft / base fractures) 

• Long thumb spica:

Immobilizes thumb and wrist (e.g. de Quervain’s tenosynovitis) 

• Wrist and/or finger drop splint:

Immobilizes wrist in extension (e.g. radial nerve palsy) 

• Palmar block splint:

Immobilizes P1 and wrist in extension (e.g. zone 5/6 extensor tendon repair) 

• Dorsal block splint:

Immobilises repaired flexor tendon 

• Munster splint:

Immobilizes and restricts forearm rotation (e.g. DRUJ instability, TFCC sprains or tears) 

Arm and elbow splints 

• Elbow / above elbow splint:

Immobilises forearm and elbow (e.g. TFCC repairs, elbow fracture, ulnar nerve transposition) 

• Static progressive elbow flexion splint:

Provides progressive load to increase flexion at the elbow 

• Static Progressive Elbow extension splint:

Provides progressive load to increase extension at the elbow