including part of the head. Both of these casts could, with care and the doctor's permission, be walked in during convalescence. However, in some cases the Risser cast would extend into one or more pantaloons, in which case mobility was far more restricted. Aside from the above common forms, body casts could come in nearly any size and configuration. For example, from the 1910s to the 1970s, use of a turnbuckle cast, which used metal turnbuckles to twist two halves of the cast so as to forcibly straighten the spine before surgery was common. The turnbuckle cast had no single configuration, and could be as small as a body jacket split in half, or could include the head, one or both legs to the knees or feet, or one arm to the elbow or wrist. Despite the large size and extreme immobilization some casts, particularly those used in or before the 1970s, the popular term full body cast is something of a misnomer. The popular and media-driven conception of a massive cast encasing all four limbs, the trunk, and the head – sometimes leaving only small slits for the eyes, nose, and mouth – is a true rarity in recorded medical history, and this type of large scale cast appears more commonly in various Hollywood movies and on television shows. The term body cast (or full body cast) is sometimes casually used by laymen to describe any of a number of body or spica casts, from a simple body jacket to a more extensive hip spica. Materials Due to the nature of the dressing, the limb is unreachable during treatment, and the skin under the plaster becomes dry and scaly because the discarded outer skin cells are not washed or brushed off. Also, plaster of Paris casts can result in cutaneous complications including macerations, ulcerations, infections, rashes, itching, burns, and allergic contact dermatitis, which may also be due to the presence of formaldehyde within the plaster bandages. In hot weather, staphylococcal infection of the hair follicles and sweat glands can lead to severe and painful dermatitis. Other limitations of plaster casts include their weight, which can be quite considerable, thus restricting movement, especially of a child. Removal of the cast requires destroying the cast itself. The process is often noisy, making use of a special oscillating saw that can easily cut the hard cast material but has difficulty cutting soft