Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Statement

At the recent world congress in reconstructive hand surgery and rehabilitation in tetraplegia (Philadelphia, 2007), a resolution regarding assessment of individuals with tetraplegia was presented and accepted. Briefly, this resolution stated that every person who sustains a cervical spinal cord injury with tetraplegia should be examined, assessed and informed concerning the options of possible reconstruction of motor function of the hands and arms. It is of course a long way before this ambitious goal can be achieved but the resolution put forward by the leading experts in this field certainly stresses the necessity of increasing the awareness and improving the infrastructure to meet patients’ demand of informed discussions of options for improvement of hand function.