Constraint-induced movement therapy for children with neonatal brachial plexus palsy: a randomized crossover trial.

AIM: To determine if constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is more effective than standard care in improving upper-limb activity outcomes in children with neonatal brachial plexus palsy (NBPP). METHOD: Twenty-one children with NBPP (mean age 25mo, SD=10.3, range=17-48mo; 11 males, 10 females) were enrolled in a crossover trial and randomly allocated to first receive CIMT or standard care, each for 8 weeks. The intervention arm consisted of 3 weeks of casting the unaffected limb followed by 5 weeks of transference activities. The Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) was used to measure bimanual activity performance at baseline, 8 weeks, and 16 weeks, scored by blinded raters. The Pediatric Motor Activity Log-Revised (PMAL-R) was used as a caregiver-reported secondary outcome measure. RESULTS: After concealed random allocation (n=21), there were no significant differences on demographics or baseline measures. CIMT was superior compared to control in terms of bimanual activity performance with a mean difference in AHA change score of 4.8 (SD=10.5, p=0.04, Cohen's δ=0.46). There were no significant differences between treatment conditions on the PMAL-R. INTERPRETATION: CIMT is favored over standard care for bimanual activity performance. Future research should investigate a longer follow-up period, additional comparator interventions, and analyse differences by participant characteristics. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Gains in bimanual activity performance were greater after constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) compared to no CIMT. Frequency and quality of movement were not significantly different between treatment groups.

Long term functional outcomes after early childhood pollicization.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective Cohort INTRODUCTION: Important outcomes of polliciation to treat thumb hypoplasia/aplasia include strength, function, dexterity, and quality of life. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: To evaluate outcomes and examine predictors of outcome after early childhood pollicization. METHODS: 8 children (10 hands) were evaluated 3-15 years after surgery. Physical examination, questionnaires, grip and pinch strength, Box and Blocks, 9-hole pegboard, and strength-dexterity (S-D) tests were performed. RESULTS: Pollicized hands had poor strength and performance on functional tests. Six of 10 pollicized hands had normal dexterity scores but less stability in maintaining a steady-state force. Predictors of poorer outcomes included older age at surgery, reduced metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal range of motion, and radial absence. DISCUSSION: Pollicization resulted in poor strength and overall function, but normal dexterity was often achieved using altered control strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Most children should obtain adequate dexterity despite weakness after pollicization except older or severely involved children. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.

Quantitative assessment of dynamic control of fingertip forces after pollicization.

Dexterity after finger pollicization (reconstruction to thumb) is critical to functional outcomes. While most tests of hand function evaluate a combination of strength, coordination, and motor control, the Strength-Dexterity (S-D) paradigm focuses on the dynamic control of fingertip forces. We evaluated 10 pollicized and 5 non-pollicized hands from 8 participants ages 4-17 years (2 female, 6 male; 10.6 ± 4.5 years). Participants partially compressed and held an instrumented spring prone to buckling between the thumb and first finger to quantify dynamic control over the direction and magnitude of fingertip forces. They also completed traditional functional tests including grip, lateral pinch, and tripod pinch strength, Box and Blocks, and 9-hole peg test. Six of 10 pollicized hands and all non-pollicized hands had S-D scores comparable to typically developing children. However, dynamical analysis showed that pollicized hands exhibit greater variability in compression force, indicating poorer corrective action. Almost all pollicized hands scored below the normal range for the traditional functional tests. The S-D test Z-scores correlated moderately with Z-scores from the other functional tests (r = 0.54-0.61; p = 0.02-0.04) but more weakly than amongst the other functional measures (r = 0.58-0.83; p = 0.0002-0.02), suggesting that the S-D test captures a different domain of function. A higher incidence of radial absence in the hands with poor S-D scores (3/4 vs. 0/6 in hands with normal S-D scores, p = 0.03) was the only clinical characteristic associated with S-D outcome. Overall, these results suggest that while most pollicized hands can control fingertip forces, the nature of that control is altered.

Assessing shoulder motion in children: age limitations to Mallet and ABC Loops.

BACKGROUND: Shoulder ROM and function of the shoulder are difficult to evaluate in young children. There has been no determination of the age at which children can comply with the current assessment tools in use, but doing so would be important, because it gives us more accurate insight into the development and assessment of shoulder functional ROM in young children. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We (1) determined whether age would limit the use of two different observational scales used to assess shoulder ROM and function in young children (the Mallet scale and the ABC Loops protocol); and (2) compared the two scales in terms of intra- and interobserver reliabilities. METHODS: Sixty-five able-bodied children (32 boys, 33 girls; mean age, 3.9 years; range, 0.5-7.0 years) were recruited from local preschools and evaluated using the Mallet scale and ABC Loops protocol. Children were assessed on their ability to complete the examinations and time to completion for each measurement protocol. Intra- and interobserver reliability was tested by percentage agreement. Forty-eight children (mean age, 4.4 years; SD, 1.3 years) were able to complete the Mallet and ABC Loops measurement protocols; 17 children (mean age, 2.3 years; SD, 1.1 years) failed to complete either test. RESULTS: Younger children had more difficulty completing the examinations; there was a strong negative correlation between age and failure: probability of failure increased with decreasing age (Pearson r = -0.601, p < 0.001). Children who were able to complete one test were able to complete the other. Interobserver and intraobserver agreement was very high for both scales (in excess of 95% for all comparisons), and with the numbers available, there were no differences between the scales. CONCLUSIONS: The Mallet scale and ABC Loops protocol have high reliability metrics in children younger than 6 years, but very young children (those younger than 3 years) generally will not be able to complete the examinations. The ABC Loops test took longer to perform than the Mallet scale but may more comprehensively evaluate a child's functional capabilities. We therefore state that both assessment tools can be reliably used in children older than 3 years; we believe the ABC Loops gives a more accurate assessment of shoulder ROM.