gms | German Medical Science

14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT)

17.06. - 21.06.2019, Berlin

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Effects of Task-Specific Therapy with Vibrotactile Feedback on Sensorimotor Function in Patients with Peripheral Nerve Injuries: A Pilot Clinical Trial

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  • presenting/speaker Hsiu-Yun Hsu - National Cheng Kung University Hospital, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  • Ta-Shen Kuan - National Cheng Kung University Hospital, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  • Fong-Chin Su - National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  • Li-Chieh Kuo - National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  • Shyh-Jou Shieh - National Cheng Kung University Hospital, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy. 14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT). Berlin, 17.-21.06.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2020. DocIFSHT19-1086

doi: 10.3205/19ifssh1494, urn:nbn:de:0183-19ifssh14943

Published: February 6, 2020

© 2020 Hsu et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of task-specific therapy synchronizing with vibrotactile feedback on the sensorimotor function for healthy and peripheral nerve injury participants.

Materials and Methods: Ten healthy participants and six patients with peripheral nerve injuries were recruited in the study. A vibrotactile therapy system induced vibratory perturbation as the vibrotactile feedback when the participants conducted the pinch performance. The healthy participants conducted a pinch activity with vibratory perturbation at frequencies of 30 Hz and an amplitude of 2mm with intermittent exposure of 120 s/per 180 s, for a total of 15 minutes. The patients were randomized into either the experimental or control group for 12 weeks, at a frequency of three sessions per week. The patients in the experimental group received 15 minutes' task-specific therapy synchronized with vibrotactile feedback followed by 40 minutes of regular hand therapy in each session. The controls received 15 minutes' of classical sensory reeducation and same protocol of regular hand therapy. The outcome measurements included Semmes-Weinstein monofilament testing, a manual tactile test, the Purdue Pegboard Test, and the Minnesota manual dexterity test, were assessed before and immediately after treatment.

Results: The healthy subjects showed significant improvements (p<0.05) in the sensory and hand function after receiving vibrotactile feedback. For the patients, a significant difference was observed in post-training improvements for the roughness differentiation sub-test (-8.8 ±4.6 vs. 56.8±18.4, p=0.036), and the stereognosis (-10.4±7.2 vs. 14.2±17.4, p=0.036) sub-test of manual tactile test, and the results of bilateral pin insertion (1.8±0.8 vs. -0.4 ±0.5, p=0.036) of Purdue Pegboard Test between the experimental group and the control group.

Conclusions: The results revealed the potential of vibrotactile feedback protocol to optimize the sensorimotor function recovery in nerve injury patients.