Clinical measurement of functional dart thrower's motion in patients with unilateral wrist conditions undergoing nonoperative or postoperative hand therapy.
Jamie L Bergner, Jennifer Q Farrar, Hiral Master and 1 others
PMID 36918307WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with wrist conditions show large losses in functional dart thrower's motion compared to their unaffected side.
This loss was greater in postoperative patients and correlated slightly with functional impairment, supporting the use of this specific goniometric measure in clinical hand therapy assessments.
Key findings
01Postoperative patients had a mean total arc F-DTM of 56.5 degrees on the affected side versus 124.8 degrees on the non-affected side, a large difference.
02Nonoperative patients had a mean total arc F-DTM of 121.6 degrees on the affected side versus 138.4 degrees on the non-affected side, a moderate difference.
03Total arc F-DTM on the affected side showed a small to moderate negative association with functional status (ULFI) in the postoperative group only.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was preliminary with no a priori power analysis. Therapists were not blinded to the affected side during measurement. The sample size was too small to analyze specific diagnoses or subgroups. The ULFI is a regional measure and may not be sensitive enough to detect wrist-specific functional changes. Reliability was assessed only across brief, consecutive, unblinded trials.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H., Extramural). The authors declared no other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume F-DTM measurement replaces standard goniometry or predicts pain. The study found no association between F-DTM and pain, and the correlation with function was only marginally significant in the postoperative group. This is a preliminary feasibility study, so these findings do not yet confirm F-DTM as a standalone diagnostic or prognostic tool.