Orthesis’ Initial Impact in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients with Boutonnières Deformity on the Thumb

Objective: To evaluate the use of a static positioning orthesis for boutonnière deformity on the thumb. Methods: Twenty women aged between 25 and 74 years old were included in the study. They were distributed at random into a control group and a group using orthesis. Pinch and Jamar’s dynamometers, Pain Visual Scale and O’Connor’s Functional Evaluation were applied to all patients. Wilcoxon’s, Mann Whitney’s and Scheffe’s tests were used for the statistical analysis. Results: After 30 days in the intra-group analysis, there was functional improvement, evaluated by O’Connor’s test in 40% of the controls and 70% of these patients using orthesis. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in any of the evaluated parameters. Conclusions: These results suggest that orthesis is beneficial to the functional improvement; the tested model was comfortable and well accepted by patients. Nevertheless, subsequent studies of longer duration and including more subjects are needed.