Using HandTutor With Traumatic Hand Injuries: Characterizing the System

Using HandTutor With Traumatic Hand Injuries: Characterizing the System

HandTutor is a computerized system designed to evaluate and rehabilitate hand function. It is composed of a glove with optic sensors detecting the movements of the wrist and the fingers with a biofeedback software designed to evaluate and then to exercise the hand movements through supplying a variety of computer graphic patterns.

The HandTutor has been used and tested with a stroke population, and it seems potential to be used with hand injuried population. As a first step, it is important to investigate the characteristics of the system and how it is matching the hand injuried population.

The purpose if this study is to characterize the HandTuror system and the focused objectives are:

1. To examine the test-retest reliability of the system when measuring the range of motion (ROM) of the the fingers among healthy people (control group).
2. To examine the correlation between the ROM measured by the HandTutor and the ROM measured by conventional assessment tools (goniometer).
3. To examine the ability of the system to distinguish between healthy people and hand injured people.
4. To examine the correlation between the performance in the HandTutor (in the games part), and the performance in functional activities.
5. To examine the participants feedback for using the HandTutor (degree of enjoyment).

Inclusion Criteria:

• Hand Injuries causing a disfunction of one finger or more of the fingers 2nd-5th.
• Six weeks at least after the injury/surgery.
• Allowed to exercise their fingers with no contraindications according to the orthopedic surgeon instructions.
• With no open wounds.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Peripheral nerves injuries.
• Digital nerves injuries.
• Sensation problems.
• CRPS-complex regional pain syndrome.
• Cognitive impairments.
• Head trauma.