How you can regain your hand function: Tips, Techniques and Technology

Hand function is an essential aspect of an individual’s daily life. It allows people to perform various activities such as writing, grasping objects, and gestures. However, many factors can disrupt hand function such as physical injury, nerve damage, stroke, spinal cord injury and more. Fortunately, there are several ways to regain hand function. This article will delve into the different techniques and tips on how you can regain your hand function.

Later in this article we will introduce Carbonhand. This technology, by providing support and enhancing grip strength, can help individuals regain control over their daily lives, allowing them to maintain their autonomy, social engagement, and overall well-being.

Hand Therapy

Grip strength is a fundamental aspect of daily living, playing a crucial role in a person's ability to perform essential tasks such as holding objects, opening containers, and operating tools or devices. When grip strength is compromised due to injury, illness, or age-related decline, it can significantly impact an individual's independence, self-confidence, and overall quality of life. Simple activities like preparing meals, dressing, or engaging in hobbies become challenging, often leading to increased reliance on others for assistance. In turn, this can result in feelings of frustration, isolation, and even depression.

One way to regain hand function is through hand therapy.  Hand therapy is a type of physical therapy tailored to specifically evaluate and treat hand disorders and and conditions that affect the upper extremity.  It involves various techniques that help improve hand dexterity, strength, and flexibility.  An experienced hand therapist will evaluate your condition and create a tailored program that suits your needs. Hand therapy may involve hand exercises, splints, and other techniques to help improve your hand function. The therapist may use techniques such as electrical stimulation, heat therapy, or cold therapy, depending on the individual requirement.

Hand Exercises

Hand exercises are a crucial aspect of hand therapy. They help strengthen the hand muscles, improve flexibility, and overall hand dexterity. Hand therapy exercises may include repetitive finger bending and stretching, wrist rotations, gripping exercise, and more. Hand exercises are generally designed to be easy to perform and ideally can be done at home. 
For example, finger exercises, such as gripping therapy putty or using a hand grip strengthening tool, can help develop hand movement and finger strength.  Hand opening and closing exercises can also work on improving grip strength and hand dexterity. Furthermore, finger extension exercises with the use of splints can help restore finger movement. 

In recent years, technology has emerged that can help. Many different products are available but before purchasing anything you should seek guidance from someone who understands your personal issues.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is another form of therapy that can help improve hand function. Occupational therapists focus on assessing and treating physical, cognitive, or psychological disorders that impede a person's ability to perform daily activities. This type of therapy can help an individual regain lost skills or develop new ones.

Occupational therapy can, for example, help stroke patients regain hand function, as well as those who have suffered from a spinal cord injury. The therapist may develop a personalised program that includes selected exercise, splints, and other techniques to help improve hand dexterity and movement.

Hand Surgery

In severe cases, hand surgery may be necessary to restore hand function. For example, a tendon transfer procedure can help restore hand movement. In this procedure, the surgeon removes a tendon from a less used muscle group with preserved function, perhaps within the forearm, and attaches it to the injured area. This technique can help restore hand function by making use of stronger muscles.

Another type of hand intervention is functional electrical stimulation (FES). This technique involves placing small electrodes on the affected hand or forearm. This will stimulate nerves and muscles, potentially allowing for better movement and function.  As the muscles in the hand and arm are quite small this can be tricky to get right and generally needs specialist expertise.

Plastic surgery may also be an option in some cases to restore hand function. For example, a surgeon may use skin grafts to repair a damaged area, or they may need to remove scar tissue formed as a result of the natural healing process after trauma that's now limiting movement.

Clinical Trials

There are various clinical trials that focus on hand function and its recovery. For example, on the use of FES for upper limb motor function in stroke survivors. In general studies show that FES can often help improve hand dexterity, grip strength, and overall upper limb function in many stroke survivors.  Stroke recovery will be affected by the severity of the event so results will inevitably vary.

Other clinical trials are focusing on the use of nerve growth factor, which is a type of protein that promotes nerve growth and regeneration. The protein may be synthesised and used to aid in the recovery of nerve injuries that affect hand function.

Assistive Technology

Apart from the technology used in therapy, there is a class of products that represent assistive technology. 

We are excited to work with the Carbonhand from Bioservo Technologies. Carbonhand could be described as a soft robotic glove that can be useful for many persons with compromised or weak grip following a stroke, spinal cord injury, MS or many other conditions.

Close up of the unique glove of the Carbonhand showing the sensors, artificial tendons and the on-glove control pad

The Carbonhand system consists of a lightweight and flexible, 3 finger glove with sensors on each digit. Information from the sensors is relayed via cables to a power unit held at the waist or on the person's back. It can also be mounted on a wheelchair if required. The power unit's software uses the sensor information to actuate artificial “tendons” to flex the fingers and grip an object or release it.

By using a linked IOS or Android App, the user can fine tune the way the glove behaves. For example, to provide a more powerful grip when carrying a heavy object or a more sensitive grip when holding a pen or soft object. The software control system ensures that the response of the glove is extremely rapid which helps a user to interact with it in a very natural way. 

The on-glove control pad can be used to turn on the system, select anyone of the defined grip programmes or be used to instantaly activate or release a “power grip”. As an alternative method of activation, a remote button can be used. With this method, a button can be mounted anywhere convenient to the user and a quick touch on the button activates the glove. This enables users with no finger movement to grasp objects and release.

Research with more than 200 users has shown that Carbonhand is actually capable of delivering therapy benefits as well as serving as effective assistive technology. Typically. after 4 to 12 weeks of use, users experience improvements in useful outcome measures such as grip strength, finger dexterity and overall user ratings of quality of life. 

It is an important point that Carbonhand is “natural” to use as it instantly enables a user to achieve functions that they value.  If users are able to accomplish meaningful activities again they will remain much more motivated. than if they were just asked to perform repetitive exercises.

The video below shows more clearly how this exciting technology works and what can be done with it.

Tips for Regaining Hand Function

Aside from seeking professional medical help, there are some tips to help regain hand function.
1. Patience and perseverance are crucial in hand recovery. It takes time, effort, and consistency to see significant results. The body operates on a “use it or lose it” principle so it's important to recognise that progress will take sustained effort.
2. A stroke patient may have an affected arm and one which is unaffected. It is important to use both arms as much as possible. Learning to rely on an unaffected arm
3. Use assistive devices such as splints, braces, or adaptive tools such as Carbonhand to help with specific tasks.
4. Incorporate hand exercises into your daily routine.
5. Use heat and cold therapy to help relieve hand pain or inflammation.
6. Be mindful of your hand movements, and avoid activities that may cause further strain or injury.
7. Seek emotional and mental health support if necessary, as the process of hand recovery is often challenging and can take a toll on a person's mental health.

Conclusion

Hand function is vital for daily activities, and various factors can cause it to decrease. However, there are many ways to regain hand function, such as seeking help from a hand therapist or occupational therapist, performing hand exercises, and even surgery in severe cases. It's essential to be patient and consistent in the journey towards hand recovery, and remember that there are several resources available to help with the process. Technology can help the recovery process or provide an assistive function. It is important to evaluate technology such as the Carbonhand carefully to see that it is right for you. We think Carbonhand is a great option for many as it can allow users to carry out everyday activities that matter to them. This ensures that the effort and repetitions necessary to maximise recovery are a result of daily use.

If you are interested in the Carbonhand and in the UK please contact us to discuss a demonstration and for pricing.