Impact of Second Skin Lycra Splinting on the Quality of Upper Limb Movement in Children

Abstract

Spasticity can have serious functional implications for children with neurological deficits. Lycra splints may be recommended by occupational therapists to manage spasticity and improve function. In this study, four children with neurological deficits were assessed for quality of upper limb movement while wearing and not wearing an upper limb lycra splint. Two participants diagnosed with cerebral palsy were long-term splint users. The other two participants had an acquired brain injury and commenced wearing their splints during the intervention phase of the study. Using a single subject research design, 7–12 baseline (non-wearing phase) and intervention (wearing phase) assessments were conducted for each child using the Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function. The results show that one long-term user had a statistically significant decline in quality of upper limb movement during the intervention phase. One new user had a statistically significant improvement, but only on initial wearing of the splint. The results suggest that the effectiveness of Second Skin lycra splints was highly variable between individual children with spasticity.

The effect of upper extremity weight bearing on upper extremity function in children with hemiplegic type of cerebral palsy

“…Reach, grasp and manipulation scores increased significantly when compared to the baseline. This finding is supported in reports by Corn et al (2003) who also found statistically significant and clinically observable results in their studies but the children did not improve as per the Melbourne criteria. They concluded that if the measurement error that may arise as a result of multiple untrained raters was reduced then 'smaller changes' in the Melbourne values could be regarded as significant.…”

“…The improvement in release of an object in our study is supported by Kinghorn and Roberts (1996) who noted significant temporary improvement in release, and Smelt (1989) who reported qualitative changes in volitional release. Corn et al (2003) suggest that this probably was the result of an improvement in proximal stabilization. Weiss and Jeannerod (1998) state that improved sensory feedback ensures accuracy during the final components of the movement.…”

The effect of neoprene thumb abduction splints on upper limb function in children with cerebral palsy

“…Construct, content, criterion and evaluative validity was high with a correlation of 0.84 between the QUEST and PDMS-FM 18 and a correlation of 0.83 between the QUEST and MUUL 19 . The QUEST has also been reported to be responsive to change over time 17,20 .…”

Lycra® arm splints improve movement fluency in children with cerebral palsy

“…They consist of sections of lycra stitched together under tension with a specific direction of pull [18,19]. The inherent properties of lycra 1 create a low force that resists the hypertonic muscle, whilst also facilitating the antagonist action [20].…”