How Do Orthoses Impact Ease of Donning, Handwriting, Typewriting, and Transmission of Manual Torque? A Study of Three Prefabricated Wrist-Hand Orthoses

Abstract

Introduction: Many upper limb injuries have work-related causes such as continued use of computers with typing activities and mouse manipulation.. This study evaluated the performance of wrist-hand orthoses in manual tasks and in transmission of torque measurement during canned glass opening.Material and Methods: Thirty healthy participants performed donning, typing and handwriting tasks and transmission of manual torque. The procedures were performed in four conditions: with three different orthoses and with no orthosis as a control. Results: The results showed a significant difference in the time of manual writing (p < .001) and in the number of words per minute (p < .001) in the typing task with and without orthoses. The perceived difficulty in performing typing (p < .001) and manual writing (p < .001) was lower with no orthoses and higher for canvas orthosis and the two neoprene orthoses. Transmission of manual torque also decreased with the orthoses compared using no orthosis (p < .001). Among the orthoses, the canvas fabric orthosis yielded a lower performance compared to the two different neoprene fabric orthoses for all the tasks. Conclusions: There are effects of the materials used and the orthosis design when performing handwriting typing tasks and twisting tasks (transmission of manual torque), as well as the correctness of how users donning the orthosis.

A Systematic Review of Differences Between Conventional Orthoses and 3D-Printed Orthoses

“…Orthoses are assistive devices applied to any part of the body, alone or covering more than one joint [5]. With the aim of meeting the individual needs of each person, orthoses may perform several functions including maintaining or promoting the range of articular movement, preventing or correcting deformities, protecting against injuries, assisting in rehabilitation, and maximizing function [6].…”