Home-based rehabilitation using a soft robotic hand glove device leads to improvement in hand function in people with chronic spinal cord injury:a pilot study.
Bethel A C Osuagwu, Sarah Timms, Ruth Peachment and 6 others
PMID 32138780WHAT IT FOUND
People with chronic spinal cord injury who wore a soft robotic glove at home for 12 weeks improved their hand function and grip strength.
These gains remained six weeks after they stopped using the device. The study had no control group.
Key findings
01Participants significantly improved their ability to manipulate objects and sustain grasp force during the first six weeks of using the glove.
02Key and jaw pinch grip strength increased significantly by Week 6, and these improvements were maintained through the Week 18 follow-up.
03Muscle tone in the thumb improved significantly during the intervention period, but this effect was not sustained at the follow-up assessment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was uncontrolled and had a small sample size (15 participants), making it impossible to determine if the improvements were due to the glove, the increased activity, or natural variation. Five participants withdrew before completing the study, citing pain, discomfort, or that the glove got in the way of daily activities. The actual daily usage time reported by participants (averaging 0.3 to 6 hours) was lower than the recommended four hours, and the diary data was incomplete. The study did not include a comparison group, so the effect of the glove cannot be separated from the effect of simply performing the assigned daily tasks.
Declared interests
The paper states it was supported by non-U.S. government funding. No specific commercial conflicts of interest for the device manufacturer (Bioservo Technologies AB) are explicitly declared in the provided text, though the device is named and described.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the SEM Glove is a proven treatment for chronic spinal cord injury. This was a small, uncontrolled pilot study where participants performed specific exercises while wearing the glove. The improvements could be due to the exercises themselves rather than the device, and the lack of a control group means we cannot know if these gains would have happened without it.