During a discussion on another thread in this forum, it became clear that a naming convention of some sort should be made for the implant locations in the hand. I simply modeled the way dentists talk about teeth in the mouth, and concluded the following should suffice.
Flex series implant considerations
It is recommended that flex implants not be placed in position 4 or 5 (see below). These locations often put too much stress on the implant and tend to have a higher failure rate when flex implants are placed in these positions. Payment capable flex conversions can be placed in position 3 and still be easy to use with payment terminals by simply flipping the hand over.
Multiple chips in one hand
Before I get into possible implant locations, I want to first address the idea of implanting multiple chips in the same hand or in close proximity. There a few primary considerations;
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Keep at least 5mm between implant and other implants or bone. This is particularly relevant when it comes to x-series chips (glass tube encased implants). Putting two x-series chip implants too close together can increase the risk of glass-to-glass impact inside the body, which could crack or shatter the glass tube.
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Chips of a common type can interfere with each other. In general, if your hand has the space to place two chips nearly side by side with 5mm between (see #1 above), then you will want to be sure that they will not interfere with each other. The general rule to follow is that two chips of the same frequency cannot be very close to each other or there will be problems. This does not include implants that do not have chips inside like xLEDs which are just a coil and LED, but no chip. For example if you wanted to implant an xNT and an xLED-HF side by side (with 5mm between), then this would be fine. However, if you wanted to place an xDF2 and xNT side by side, then it would be extremely difficult to position the reader to read the chip you actually wanted to read but not the other one. In general, if you have two implants of the same frequency you will want to try to keep them at least 5cm away from each other to make it practical to read each in a reliable way.
Anatomy lesson
Let’s cover some basics about anatomy…
Implant positions of the hand
The naming convention starts first with a prefix of L or R for Left or Right, followed by a number to specify the position. For example, L0 would be the more common installation location in the webbing between thumb and index finger on the left hand.
0 - The triangle tissue between the metacarpal bones of the thumb and index finger
1 - Between metacarpals of the index and middle finger
2 - Between metacarpals of the middle and ring finger
3 - Between metacarpals of the ring and small (pinky) finger
4 - Just outside the metacarpal of the small (pinky) finger
5 - The outer edge (knife edge) if the hand
6 - On or around the proximal phalanx of the thumb*
7 - On or around the proximal phalanx of the index finger*
8 - On or around the proximal phalanx of the middle finger
9 - On or around the proximal phalanx of the ring finger*
10 - On or around the proximal phalanx of the small (pinky) finger*
11 - On the palmar side of the metacarpal of the thumb
More positions may be added to this list in time. Fingertips should be fairly self-explanatory (I have a magnet in my left middle fingertip).
Specific difference between position 4 and 5
*These positions are mostly listed for consistency, but they are very uncommon implant locations due to their relatively small size and are typically not suited for implantation for that reason.
