Affiliations: [a] Industrial Research Ltd., Christchurch, New Zealand | [b] Burwood Academy of Independent Living, Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand | [c] Burwood Spinal Unit, Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Marcus J. King, Industrial Research Ltd., P O Box 20028, Christchurch 8053, New Zealand. Tel.: +64 3 3586810; Fax: +64 3 3589506; E-mail: m.king@irl.cri.nz.
Abstract: A new tenodesis orthosis is described for assisting people who have a cervical spinal injury resulting in reduced grasp function. The orthosis utilises wrist extension to produce a lateral key grip between the thumb and proximal or middle phalanx of the index finger. An assessment tool was developed to measure functionality using ADL tasks and a Preston pinch meter was used to measure grip strength. After 6-weeks training, use of the orthosis increased lateral key grip on average by 3 times and the number of tasks achieved increased from 6 to 11 out of the 13 tasks measured. The learning effect from the training protocol was significant (P = 0.04) and use of the orthosis reinforced the movement pattern required to achieve a standard tenodesis grasp
