The purpose of the meeting is to launch a research project addressing surgical options to improve balance and control of hand in tetraplegia. Specifically, the researchers aim to model and simulate how the loss of fine tune hand control in tetraplegia affect the mobility and force of finger joints upon surgical reconstruction. The loss of intrinsic balance of the fingers has always been a great challenge in surgical reconstruction since the loss is much more pronounced than after peripheral nerve injury. Although much knowledge exist about the intrinsic finger balance in the normal hand, the presentation of the functional loss in tetraplegia differs in several aspects e.g. the complicated interactions of long muscle-tendons units with intrinsic hand muscles. This fact affects choice of methods to passively position fingers i.e., so called tenodesis. The research that is scheduled to last from July through December 2012, include Drs. Jan Fridén, Richard L. Lieber, David Muzykewicz, Ursina Arnet and Tim Tirrell (picture).Tuesday, July 3, 2012
American, Swedish and Swiss Tetrahand scientists meet in San Diego
The purpose of the meeting is to launch a research project addressing surgical options to improve balance and control of hand in tetraplegia. Specifically, the researchers aim to model and simulate how the loss of fine tune hand control in tetraplegia affect the mobility and force of finger joints upon surgical reconstruction. The loss of intrinsic balance of the fingers has always been a great challenge in surgical reconstruction since the loss is much more pronounced than after peripheral nerve injury. Although much knowledge exist about the intrinsic finger balance in the normal hand, the presentation of the functional loss in tetraplegia differs in several aspects e.g. the complicated interactions of long muscle-tendons units with intrinsic hand muscles. This fact affects choice of methods to passively position fingers i.e., so called tenodesis. The research that is scheduled to last from July through December 2012, include Drs. Jan Fridén, Richard L. Lieber, David Muzykewicz, Ursina Arnet and Tim Tirrell (picture).
