PURPOSE Surgical transfers of muscles are used to restore lateral pinch in tetraplegia; however, outcomes are variable. The purpose of this study was to compare activation of the brachioradialis (Br) after transfer to the flexor pollicis longus during maximum effort in its primary function (elbow flexion) with maximum effort in its postoperative function (lateral pinch) and to record Br activat...

INTRODUCTION Patients with hand disorders frequently experience difficulties opening peelable packaging. PURPOSE To investigate the forces patients can apply to tear tabs and to compare the results with normative data to make recommendations for the industry and clinical practice. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive, cross-sectional. METHODS One hundred patients with hand disorders were studied. The...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE There is limited documentation of measurement error of grip and pinch force evaluation methods. The purposes of this study were (1) to determine indexes of measurement error for intraexaminer and interexaminer measurements of grip and pinch force in patients with hand injuries and (2) to investigate whether the measurement error differs between measurements of the injured...

BACKGROUND Aging is accompanied by a marked decline in muscle strength and ability to maintain steady submaximal force. Studies have shown that exercise programs can improve age-related regression of hand function in elderly individuals. The purpose of this study was to train elderly subjects to perform skilled finger movements and to evaluate the changes in hand function involving skillful use...

The human opposable thumb enables the hand to perform dexterous manipulation of objects, which requires well-coordinated digit force vectors. This study investigated the directional coordination of force vectors generated by the thumb and index finger during precision pinch. Fourteen right-handed, healthy subjects were instructed to exert pinch force on an externally stabilized apparatus with t...

Background: Forward head posture is one of the most prevalent abnormal postures in patients with neck disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of forward head posture on gait ground reaction force characteristics in children. Methods: Twelve children with forward head posture (age: 11.8±1.3 years) and sixteen healthy control children (...

The object of the current study was to determine whether static contraction of proximal musculature has an effect on the blood flow more distally in the upper extremity. Static contractions of muscles in the neck shoulder region at three levels (relaxed, shoulders elevated and shoulders elevated loaded with 4.95 kg each) were combined with intermittent pinch forces at 0, 10 and 25% of the maxim...

When repetitively lifting an object with randomly varying mechanical properties, the fingertip forces reflect the previous lift. We examined the specificity of this "sensorimotor memory" by observing the effects of an isolated pinch on the subsequent lift of a known object. In this case, the pinch force was unrelated to the fingertip forces necessary to grip the object efficiently. The peak gri...

The ability to direct forces between the thumb and fingers is important to secure objects in the hand. We compared the coordination of thumb musculature in key and opposition pinch postures between stable and unstable tasks. The unstable task (producing thumb-tip force wearing a beaded thimble) required well-directed forces; the stable task (producing thumb-tip force against a pinch meter) did ...