Abstract
To determine whether surgical key grip reinforcement actually leads to a better movement
ability we developed a procedure for the kinematic analysis of manual skill following
hand surgery in tetraplegia. The functional results of surgery in 5 cases were examined
by the kinematic analysis of drawing movements using an electronic pen and a digitizer
under 3 conditions: with eyes open, with eyes closed, and while performing a concurrent
arithmetic task. Movement velocity and dysfluency (ie, the number of velocity changes
per centimeter) were measured before and at several moments after surgery during subsequent
rehabilitation. Both movement velocity and dysfluency showed good stability across
repeated trials and were consistently affected by visual deprivation. Movement velocity
showed a 39% increment between the first and last assessment. Although grip strength
increased in all patients, it was not associated with the change of movement velocity.
These results suggest that other factors (eg, deep sensibility, cognition, muscle
coordination) play a critical role in the ability to use improved grip force for controlling
drawing movements and emphasize the value of a kinematic assessment besides measuring
isolated grip force in the evaluation of functional hand surgery. (J Hand Surg 2000;25A:1140-1146.
Copyright © 2000 by the American Society for Surgery of the Hand.)
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
May 16,
2000
Received:
July 27,
1999
Footnotes
*No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.
**Reprint requests: Harmen van der Linde, Rehabilitation Center Sint Maartenskliniek, Hengstdal 3, 6522 JV Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Identification
Copyright
© 2000 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
