TOPIC

Hand therapy research

Everything we have read on hand therapy. Each paper is summarised from the full article rather than its abstract, so the limitations are in there too, and the funding wherever the paper declares it.

1,303 PAPERS · PAGE 5 OF 27 · NEWEST FIRST

• OTOther2018Improving internal model strength and performance of prosthetic hands using augmented feedback.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationAudio feedback added to a muscle-controlled prosthetic hand helped healthy users adapt more and complete more grasp-and-lift transfers without breaking the object. Speed did not change. It was a small lab test in able-bodied people, not amputees.
• PTOTRCT2018Effects of shoulder strapping in patients with stroke: A randomised control trial.The South African journal of physiotherapyShoulder strapping did not significantly improve pain, subluxation, tone, or motor function compared to standard care. While some non-significant trends favoured longitudinal strapping, the trial found no statistical evidence that either strapping technique changes clinical outcomes in stroke patients.
• OTSystematic Review2018Orthotic management of fixed flexion deformity of the proximal interphalangeal joint following traumatic injury: A systematic review.Hong Kong journal of occupational therapy : HKJOTNo orthosis type was shown to be better for post-traumatic PIPJ flexion contracture. Splint and exercise programmes improved motion, but the splint alone cannot be credited and studies were too varied to guide a choice.
• OTCase-Control2018Bilateral reaching deficits after unilateral perinatal ischemic stroke: a population-based case-control study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationChildren with arterial perinatal stroke showed reaching deficits in both arms, especially the weaker side. Children with venous infarction showed fewer deficits. The better arm can be impaired, so hand function assessment should look beyond the paretic side.
• OTPilot2019Functional changes through the usage of 3D-printed transitional prostheses in children.Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technologyIn 11 children without a separate control group, about 24 weeks of using a 3D-printed transitional prosthesis increased the affected-limb block-moving score, but wrist strength did not increase significantly.
• OTOther2018Repeatability and Safety of the Functional Capacity Evaluation-One-Handed for Individuals with Upper Limb Reduction Deficiency and Amputation.Journal of occupational rehabilitationFive of eight one-handed functional capacity tests gave stable scores across two sessions in 23 people with upper limb absence; three did not. The test was safe with precautions, but pain and learning effects mean individual scores need cautious interpretation.
• PTOTSystematic Review2019Racial and ethnic disparities in stroke outcomes: a scoping review of post-stroke disability assessment tools.Disability and rehabilitationPost-stroke disability research used many different outcome measures, and most appeared in only one study. The studies often did not show that measures work equally well across racial and ethnic groups. Only one study examined American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander groups.
• OTSurvey2019User surveys support designing a prosthetic wrist that incorporates the Dart Thrower's Motion.Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technologyPeople with trans-radial prosthetic wrists reported lower satisfaction and higher difficulty with Dart Thrower's Motion tasks, and interviewees wanted a wrist that adds this motion even if it is more complex.
• PTOTOther2018Comparison of Self-Report Versus Sensor-Based Methods for Measuring the Amount of Upper Limb Activity Outside the Clinic.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationSelf-reported and sensor-measured upper limb use correlate moderately but disagree frequently. Only five participants were consistently accurate. Therapists should not assume a patient's report of arm use matches objective data, nor use the two measures interchangeably.
• PTOTNarrative Review2018Evaluation of Performance-Based Outcome Measures for the Upper Limb: A Comprehensive Narrative Review.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitationMost upper-limb performance tests used for amputees and stroke patients assess one-hand tasks in front of the body, rely on subjective judgments, and rarely capture sensation or movement quality. Few cover all movement zones or two-handed daily use.
• OTOther2019Vocational Rehabilitation of Young Adults with Psychological Disabilities.Journal of occupational rehabilitationYoung adults with psychological disabilities in German vocational rehabilitation waited longer to start rehabilitation and obtained employment less often than other rehabilitants. Interviewees described needing early access and gradual work routines.
• PTOTOther2018Hand-Use-at-Home Questionnaire: validity and reliability in children with neonatal brachial plexus palsy or unilateral cerebral palsy.Clinical rehabilitationParents can use the Hand-Use-at-Home questionnaire to report how often a child with one weak arm spontaneously uses it at home. Scores were stable over two to four weeks and related to severity, but ability alone did not fully predict use.
• OTOther2019The Development of an Instrument to Measure the Work Capability of People with Limited Work Capacity (LWC).Journal of occupational rehabilitationA tailored questionnaire for people with limited work capacity can be completed by them and by a supporter, and scores were stable over 3 months. It has not yet been shown to predict job behaviour or performance.
• PTOTCohort2019Functional Capacity Evaluation in Different Societal Contexts: Results of a Multicountry Study.Journal of occupational rehabilitationFunctional capacity test scores in patients with musculoskeletal pain were consistently linked to height, reported pain, and the specific clinician and country conducting the test. These contextual factors must be considered when interpreting results for return-to-work decisions.
• OTRCT2018Nerve Stimulation Enhances Task-Oriented Training for Moderate-to-Severe Hemiparesis 3-12 Months After Stroke: A Randomized Trial.American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitationAdding nerve stimulation to intensive arm training improved task-based hand performance more than sham stimulation with the same training at the end of treatment in adults with moderate-to-severe stroke arm weakness.
• OTQualitative2019Multi-stakeholder perspectives on information communication technology training for older adults: implications for teaching and learning.Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technologyCare providers, trainers and older adults described individualized technology training tied to meaningful daily life as important. They reported fear, low interest and unsupportive peers as barriers, and rapport, simplicity, patience and self-directed learning as supports.
• PTOTMeta-Analysis2018Repetitive Peripheral Sensory Stimulation and Upper Limb Performance in Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairRepetitive peripheral sensory stimulation, usually paired with motor training, was associated with upper limb motor gains in chronic stroke in small pooled trials, but participants likely knew they received active treatment. The two-hour protocol may be hard to use.
• OTOther2019Convergent Validity and Responsiveness of the SULCS.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationThe SULCS test tracks upper-limb recovery in stroke patients as accurately as longer, more complex measures. It correlates strongly with established tests and shows no scoring gaps, offering a quicker way to monitor hand function changes over six months.
• PTOTRCT2019Clinical study of combined mirror and extracorporeal shock wave therapy on upper limb spasticity in poststroke patients.International journal of rehabilitation research. Internationale Zeitschrift fur Rehabilitationsforschung. Revue internationale de recherches de readaptationFor poststroke upper limb spasticity, adding mirror therapy and shock wave therapy to usual rehabilitation showed better arm movement and lower tone scores than adding either one alone or usual rehabilitation alone.
• OTRCT2018Myocontrol is closed-loop control: incidental feedback is sufficient for scaling the prosthesis force in routine grasping.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationAble-bodied people scaled myoelectric prosthesis grasp force across five levels using muscle contraction plus prosthesis motion and sound. Adding explicit visual force feedback reduced command error from 15% to 12% and force error from 14% to 13%.
• PTOTOther2018Effects of a progressive walking program on the risk of developing locomotive syndrome in elderly Japanese people: a single-arm trial.Journal of physical therapy scienceIn 24 untrained older adults, a 4-month progressive walking program improved two-step test scores and self-reported locomotive syndrome risk, but stand-up scores did not change. Without a control group, this cannot prove the program caused the improvements.
• PTOTRCT2018Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation plus tracking training therapy in people with stroke: an open-label feasibility study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationSix people with chronic stroke safely completed home-based tDCS and finger tracking. All participants could set up the equipment and recommended the program. However, the intervention did not improve motor or cognitive function, likely because the five short sessions were insufficient for efficacy.
• PTOTCohort2018Association of Muscle Strength and Walking Performance in Adult Patients With Pompe Disease.Physical therapyHip and knee strength, age, sex, BMI, and ventilator use predict walking ability in adults with Pompe disease. A nomogram using these factors matched observed walking status in 66% of cases, helping clinicians identify patients at risk of overload or underload.
• OTRCT2018Control within a virtual environment is correlated to functional outcomes when using a physical prosthesis.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationFaster virtual limb completion times were associated with better physical prosthesis test scores after a 6-week home trial with occupational therapy, custom pattern recognition prosthesis use, practice and recalibration.
• PTOTRCT2018Automated functional upper limb evaluation of patients with Friedreich ataxia using serious games rehabilitation exercises.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationPeople with Friedreich ataxia took 44 seconds to wipe a virtual screen, compared with 25 seconds for healthy controls, and scored 88% accuracy versus 94%. The game may help track upper limb impairment, but it was not tested as treatment.
• OTOther2018Identification of forearm skin zones with similar muscle activation patterns during activities of daily living.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationForearm skin zones with similar muscle electrical activity patterns were identified during hand tasks. Seven zones may represent forearm activity in simulated daily tasks. Six healthy subjects only.
• PTOTSystematic Review2018Assessment of upper limb use in children with typical development and neurodevelopmental disorders by inertial sensors: a systematic review.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationWearable sensors on both wrists can objectively measure upper limb movement in children. They distinguish typical development from neurodevelopmental disorders and track asymmetry. Current evidence is too limited by small sample sizes and varied methods to recommend them as standard clinical tools yet.
• PTOTRCT2018Kinect-based assessment of proximal arm non-use after a stroke.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationA marker-less Kinect sensor measured proximal arm non-use in stroke survivors with good accuracy compared to a reference system. It reliably tracked shoulder and elbow movement reserve, offering a low-cost, easy-to-set-up alternative for clinical assessment.
• OTRCT2018Effects of a virtual reality video game exercise program on upper extremity function and daily living activities in stroke patients.Journal of physical therapy scienceAdding Wii video-game exercise to usual stroke therapy did not improve standard arm/hand test scores more than usual therapy alone. The daily-living questionnaire showed a group difference, but the paper's numbers for it are unclear.
• PTOTOther2018Machine learning algorithms for activity recognition in ambulant children and adolescents with cerebral palsy.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationMachine learning models accurately identified brisk walking and sedentary time in children with cerebral palsy using wrist or hip sensors. Combining both locations improved accuracy. Comfortable walking was often misclassified as brisk walking, so current models cannot reliably distinguish walking speeds.
• PTOTSystematic Review2018Assistive Technology for the Upper Extremities After Stroke: Systematic Review of Users' Needs.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesStroke survivors, carers and clinicians prioritise upper-limb assistive devices that are easy to use, fit home life, support real tasks, and feel safe. Cost, evidence and trust decide adoption.
• PTOTOther2018A Tablet-Based Interactive Movement Tool for Pediatric Rehabilitation: Development and Preliminary Usability Evaluation.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesSeven pediatric therapists found the prototype movement toy hard to operate: selecting games, configuring keys, and moving panels caused frequent failures. They liked its head, foot, and tactile options, but changes are needed before testing with children.
• PTOTSystematic Review2019International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Domains of 60 Physical Functioning Measurement Instruments Used During the Adult Intensive Care Unit Stay: A Scoping Review.Physical therapyMost ICU physical function tools measure mobility. Sixty tools covered 26 ICF domains, but none captured all four ICF components. If you need a broad picture, expect to combine scales, scores, questionnaires, or biophysical tests.
• PTOTNarrative Review2018Transcranial direct current stimulation for promoting motor function in cerebral palsy: a review.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationtDCS paired with training was linked to better walking speed, balance and mobility in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy, but upper limb motor gains remain unclear.
• PTOTNarrative Review2018Why orthotic devices could be of help in the management of Movement Disorders in the young.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationUpper-limb orthoses for dyskinetic children have limited evidence. Small studies and reviews show mixed effects on hand and motor function. Customised, dynamic, low-force devices are proposed, not proven.
• PTOTPilot2018User-centered practicability analysis of two identification strategies in electrode arrays for FES induced hand motion in early stroke rehabilitation.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationBoth semi-automatic and automatic electrode-array search methods found stimulation areas for hand opening in sub-acute stroke patients, but finger flexion was less reliable. The semi-automatic search was faster, and neither method was clearly preferred.
• OTOther2019Bimanual coordination during a physically coupled task in unilateral spastic cerebral palsy children.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationDuring a two-handed lifting task, children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy took longer, squeezed harder, and moved jerkily than typical peers, but the overall grip and lift relationship was not worse than typical peers, and they did not show excessive early grip.
• OTOther2019Fixed muscle synergies and their potential to improve the intuitive control of myoelectric assistive technology for upper extremities.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationIn 11 able-bodied people, 3-5 muscle patterns explained finger and rod movements, but patterns changed with rod length. A pooled set of 6-8 helped across lengths. The paper proposes this for device control, but it was not tested in patients.
• PTOTSystematic Review2019Minimal clinically important difference for grip strength: a systematic review.Journal of physical therapy scienceNo clear grip-strength change threshold was identified. Only four studies met criteria, and thresholds ranged from 0.04 to 6.9 kg. A rough estimate of 5.0 to 6.5 kg may help.
• PTOTOther2019Comparison of range of motion during movement from supine to sitting position in healthy young and elderly participants.Journal of physical therapy scienceHealthy elderly participants had larger shoulder extension and elbow flexion angles and reached the measured joint angles earlier when getting up from lying, compared with healthy young participants.
• PTOTOther2019A postural unloading task to assess fast corrective responses in the upper limb following stroke.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationA robotic arm test that removes a background load gave steadier results in healthy people and identified more stroke-related arm control problems than a test that adds a load, especially trouble slowing the arm.
• OTNarrative Review2019Sensor Measures of Symmetry Quantify Upper Limb Movement in the Natural Environment Across the Lifespan.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationWearable wrist sensors may track how much people use both arms in daily life, but the paper says more work is needed before it can guide clinical decisions.
• PTOTCase Report2019Safety and efficacy of robotic elbow training using the upper limb single-joint hybrid assistive limb combined with conventional rehabilitation for bilateral obstetric brachial plexus injury with co-contraction: a case report.Journal of physical therapy scienceIn an adult with brachial plexus injury and cocontraction, robot elbow training plus usual rehab was completed without serious adverse events. Some elbow motion, left elbow power, and right hand and self-reported function scores improved, while other measures did not.
• PTOTRCT2019Brain-Machine Interface in Chronic Stroke: Randomized Trial Long-Term Follow-up.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairPatients with severe chronic stroke arm paresis who received contingent brain-machine interface training plus physiotherapy had higher combined hand and arm motor scores six months later than before. Sham training plus physiotherapy did not significantly change scores. BMI was not tested without physiotherapy.
• PTOTOther2019Actigraph assessment for measuring upper limb activity in unilateral cerebral palsy.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationWrist sensors used during play separated children with unilateral cerebral palsy from typically developing peers, and greater hand difficulty showed greater asymmetry. This supports actigraphy as an objective measure of arm use.
• OTOther2019A quantitative taxonomy of human hand grasps.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationHand grasps grouped by finger position and muscle use into five categories: flat, distal, cylindrical, spherical, ring. The common power versus precision split was not well supported in these 40 intact subjects.
• PTOTSystematic Review2019Interventions to improve upper limb function for children with bilateral cerebral palsy: a systematic review.Developmental medicine and child neurologyEvidence on upper limb treatments for children with bilateral cerebral palsy is limited and mixed. Some programmes showed gains, but most studies were small, low quality, and combined occupational or physical therapy, so no single treatment can be recommended confidently.
• OTOther2019Test-retest reliability of goniometric measurements of the range of dart-throwing motion.Journal of physical therapy scienceA goniometer method for measuring the dart-throwing wrist motion was unreliable when repeated by the same or different occupational therapists in 24 healthy adults. Do not use it to guide clinical decisions yet.
• OTOther2019Evaluation of tremor interference with control of voluntary reaching movements in patients with Parkinson's disease.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationPeople with Parkinson's disease and tremor began reaching later and took longer to complete movements than controls. Measured tremor intensity tracked the delay in starting, but clinical tremor scores did not.
• PTOTRCT2019Boosting robot-assisted rehabilitation of stroke hemiparesis by individualized selection of upper limb movements - a pilot study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationThe group comparison of selected versus standard upper-limb movement training before adjusting for baseline scores was not significant. After accounting for baseline scores, the group trained on selected movements had an adjusted change of 4.42 versus 2.12 Fugl-Meyer points, but other outcomes were null.