An Effective and Easy Method of Splitting Damp Plaster of Paris Casts

Splintage using a cast is often required after fracture reduction. Splitting the cast is required to allow subsequent accommodation of postoperative swelling.¹ Splitting damp Plaster of Paris using plaster cutters or a saw is messy, awkward and often incomplete. If a length of anaesthetic tubing is placed on top of the wool and the plaster applied as normal over it, the cast can be split neatly and easily by cutting down through the damp plaster onto the tubing using a disposable scalpel (Fig. 1). This provides a split of adequate width to accommodate plaster spreaders if subsequently required.

Figure 1.

Safe splitting of damp plaster – cutting down with a scalpel onto disposable tubing.