Serial Casting Protocols

Serial casting is a medical procedural protocol where a cast is set, later removed and reset in a series progression. Serial casting is used to treat conditions such as muscle atrophy and equinus, a foot condition that limits a patient's up and down ankle flexibility.

Serial Casting Explained

• Serial casting works on the concept that a muscle that is too short due to any number of medical conditions can be stretched by setting it in a stretched position within a cast for a given length of time, removing the cast and allowing for a brief rest period before casting the muscle of the limb into a further stretched position. This progressive stretching causes the sarcomeres -- striated muscle fibers -- to permanently lengthen.

How Serial Casting is Commonly Used

• Serial casting is a common medical procedure for treating patients with severe muscular system impairments, such as cerebral palsy patients and other sufferers of equinus, as well as patients with severe atrophy due to having a limb in a long-term cast. The stretching process lengthens the muscle fibers and eventually restores muscularly inhibited range of motion. Sometimes serial casting protocols are used as a preventative treatment when doctors believe that extreme muscle tightness will cause bone deformities and other more severe ailments. Serial casting in conjunction with localized botox injections has been shown to enhance the procedure's effectiveness in cerebral palsy and equinus sufferers, as explained in the 2010 research paper "Short-Term Effects of Combined Serial Casting and Botulinum Toxin Injection for Spastic Equinus in Ambulatory Children with Cerebral Palsy" by the Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea.

Other Uses for Serial Casting

• Though the subject is not often explored, it is technically possible to apply the theory of forced muscle stretching via serial casting to enhancing the muscular flexibility of already healthy individuals, in much the same way as repeated traditional stretching does. The risks to a healthy person attempting such a procedure do, however, likely outweigh the benefits, since there is a possibility of tearing and damaging healthy muscles. Due to this danger, the procedure may be considered unethical, which is why it is not a common form of body modification. The practice of serial casting may also have some positive potential in treating other types of muscular tightness-related maladies.