Glove helps heal ‘boxer’s fracture’

A MEDICAL glove designed by college students which will drastically cut the healing time for a common hand-bone fracture has been hailed at a top innovation competition.

The Finger Splint - a neoprene glove with an in-built support for a fracture of the fifth metacarpal (the bone that connects your knuckle to your palm) - was developed by four students from Cork Institute of Technology.

They are now working to secure a patent on the product, developed in association with Dr James Harty, an orthopaedic surgeon at Cork University Hospital.

There are over 700 such fractures every year, mostly in 20- to 30-year-old males involved in brawling, said 21-year-old Co Limerick student, Lucy Gleeson, one of the students involved in the project.

“It’s also known as the ‘boxer’s fracture’. But at the moment, you have to be cast in plaster of Paris from below your elbow right up to your knuckles to heal the injury,” she said.

The new product drastically reduces healing time.

“There are competing products in the US but there are no other products on the market here for this injury.”

Lucy set up Finger Splint Ltd along with Martina Brennan, 22, from Aherlow, Co Tipperary; Claire Murphy, 22, from Kinsale, Co Cork; and Kat Hurley, 22, from Dungarvan, Co Waterford.

Kat designed the product and Martina, Claire and Lucy developed the business plan.

They were supervised by Keith Bryan and Caroline O’Reilly and mentored by Sean F O’Leary.

Their company was shortlisted for the finals of the Student Enterprise Awards at Queens University, Belfast, from more than 200 national entries.

It is hoped a medical device manufacturing company will express an interest in the product.