Fw: Ref.: (LML) Pocket Filaments Kits – Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments

Leprosy Mailing List – November 30,  2021

 

Ref.:  (LML) Pocket Filaments Kits – Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments

 

From:  Anthony Nicoll, Bauru, Brazil

 

Dear Dr Naafs,

I very much appreciated your letter to the Leprosy Mailing list (November 29, 2021).

I'm sure you will be relieved to know that yes, we are still producing the "Pocket Filament Kits" that I developed in Brazil some 35 years ago at the request of Occupational Therapist Linda Lehman, and with the help of surgeons, doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, and others working at the Lauro de Souza Lima Institute, here in Bauru and in Bambui and Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais State.

They are produced in a small extension to the orthopaedic workshop at SORRI-BAURU, which continues its services to benefit people with disabilities and their families in the region.

I remember having read a couple of articles of yours which mention the pioneering work of Graham Weddell  and his colleagues who published studies involving graded nylon suture filaments to monitor sensory loss in leprosy patients.

Here we have followed the specific diameters and length of mounted nylon "612" filaments as defined by Weinstein, and as reduced by Judy Bell-Krotoski to a manageable number of six graded filaments:  that she called the "Hand and Foot Set".  (That is, the five-filament hand set plus the 10 gram-force filament which became popularised by James Birke).  We still use the same colour-code defined by Judy and Linda.

Our "Kit" was recently tested in the UK and Europe, by

-       Doreen B. Pfau, Omer Haroun, Diana N. Lockwood, Christoph Maier, Marc Schmitter, Jan Vollert, Andrew S.C. Rice, Rolf-Detlef Treede. Mechanical detection and pain thresholds: comparability of devices using stepped and ramped stimuli. Pain Reports, 2020, 5.6.

And in the US, by

-        Marco Andrey Cipriani Frade, Dario Júnior de Freitas Rosa, Fred Bernardes Filho, John Stewart Spencer1, Norma T. Foss . Semmes-Weinstein monofilament: A tool to quantify skin sensation in macular lesions for leprosy diagnosis. Indian Journal of Dermatology, Venereology and Leprology, 2021, 1-9.

Most of our distribution has been restricted to Brazil, though we will also be exporting to India early next year. 

 

Anthony R J Nicholl

SORRI-BAURU, Brazil

LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder

LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/

Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com

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