Samenvatting

Summary

This report was written during an apprenticeship in the orthopaedic workshop of Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. The first month was for investigating the possibilities for improving the patient's treatment in the orthopaedic workshop. This has been done by introducing the NiMa-corset, the NiMa-prosthesis and five other small projects. The report is divided into three parts.
Part 1: is about the NiMa-corset. NiMa stands for Nikki and Mariska. After some investigation the conclusion was to introduce a semi-rigid corset like we use in the Netherlands. The workshop uses another type of semi-rigid corset, but this is an expensive and uncomfortable corset. After research on the internet a review was written and presented by the authors at the first annual scientific orthopaedic conference of Uganda. Some doctors present at this conference will consider prescribing the NiMa-corset. During fabrication of the NiMa-corsets the different materials were tested and changed to get an optimal result. The price of this corset is much lower than the semi-rigid corset they used. After getting some results the workshop personnel was taught how to produce the NiMa-corset.
Part 2: is about the NiMa-prosthesis. The idea for making this prosthesis came from one of the clinics. There was a little girl with an upper limb amputation and she couldn't put on her own shoes because she had no prosthesis. After investigation, the biggest problem in obtaining the prosthesis was the price. The price of an upper limb prosthesis is very high because all the parts have to be imported from Europe. The possibilities of producing an arm-prosthesis out of materials which are locally available was researched and a prototype was produced.
Part 3: is about five other small projects. These projects are: Making a stump care leaflet, giving a safety lesson at the orthopaedic technicians school, improving the patient registration system, improving stock management and inviting three technicians to the Netherlands to teach them about the possibilities for different orthopaedic treatments.