Joint replacement rehabilitation and the role of funding source.

Objective: To examine associations between funding source, use of rehabilitation and outcomes after total joint replacement and to evaluate variations based on demographic characteristics.

Design: Cross-sectional, questionnaire-based national survey.

Subjects: Participants aged 45 years or older (n = 522) who received either private or public funding for their surgery, were recruited from the New Zealand Joint Registry 6 months after a total hip, total knee or unicompartmental knee replacement.

Rehabilitation after total joint replacement: a scoping study.

Purpose: The evidence supporting rehabilitation after joint replacement, while vast, is of variable quality making it difficult for clinicians to apply the best evidence to their practice. We aimed to map key issues for rehabilitation following joint replacement, highlighting potential avenues for new research.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a scoping study including research published between January 2013 and December 2016, evaluating effectiveness of rehabilitation following hip and knee total joint replacement.

Decision-Making About Upper Limb Tendon Transfer Surgery by People With Tetraplegia for More Than 10 Years.

Objectives: To quantify time from spinal cord injury to upper limb reconstructive surgery for individuals with tetraplegia; to explore influences on decision-making about surgery for persons with long-standing (>10y) tetraplegia; and to determine the applicability of our previously developed conceptual framework that described the decision-making processes for people with tetraplegia of <5 years.

Design: Quantitative-qualitative mixed-methods study.

Setting: Community based in New Zealand.

Tendon Transfer Surgery for People With Tetraplegia: An Overview.

After cervical spinal cord injury, the loss of upper limb function is common. This affects an individual's ability to perform activities of daily living and participate in previous life roles. There are surgical procedures that can restore some of the upper limb function lost after cervical spinal cord injury.

Measurement of Outcomes of Upper Limb Reconstructive Surgery for Tetraplegia.

Reconstructive arm/hand surgery for tetraplegia is performed to improve arm/hand function and therefore personal well-being for individuals who accept such elective surgeries. However, changes at an impairment level do not always translate into functional or quality of life changes. Therefore, multiple outcome tools should be used that incorporate sufficient responsiveness to detect changes in arm/hand function, activity and participation, and quality of life of the individuals involved.

Home hemodialysis in children.

Pediatric home hemodialysis is infrequently performed despite a growing need globally among patients with end-stage renal disease who do not have immediate access to a kidney transplant. In this review, we expand the scope of the Implementing Hemodialysis in the Home website and associated supplement published previously in Hemodialysis International and offer information tailored to the pediatric population. We describe the experience and outcomes of centers managing pediatric patients, and offer recommendations and practical tools to assist clinicians in providing quotidian dialysis for children, including infrastructural and staffing needs, equipment and prescriptions, and patient selection and training.

Development of the International Spinal Cord Injury Activities and Participation Basic Data Set.

Study Design: Consensus decision-making process.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to develop an International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Activities and Participation (A&P) Basic Data Set.

Setting: International working group.

Life goals and social identity in people with severe acquired brain injury: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Purpose: While there is a growing body of literature exploring life goals in rehabilitation, little research has been undertaken that includes the voice of the end-user. This study examined the views and experiences of people with severe acquired brain injury regarding the place of "life goals" in residential rehabilitation.

Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to collect and analyze data from five semi-structured interviews with participants in a residential rehabilitation setting.

International spinal cord injury upper extremity basic data set.

Objective: To develop an International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Upper Extremity Basic Data Set as part of the International SCI Data Sets, which facilitates consistent collection and reporting of basic upper extremity findings in the SCI population.

Setting: International.

Methods: A first draft of a SCI Upper Extremity Data Set was developed by an international working group.

The development of the NZ-based international upper limb surgery registry.

Study Design: Implementation study.

Objectives: To describe the development and potential value of the New Zealand (NZ) upper limb surgery registry and report the demographic and spinal cord injury characteristics of individuals with tetraplegia collated to date.

Setting: Multi Center-coordinated from Burwood Spinal Unit, NZ.

The effects of aging on upper limb tendon transfers in patients with tetraplegia.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of aging on hand function among patients with tetraplegia who had forearm tendon transfer surgery between 1982 and 1990.

Methods: The study used a longitudinal cohort design that compared hand function outcomes in 2012 with those obtained 11 years earlier. A digital analyzer was used to measure key pinch and grip strength, and results were compared with those obtained in 2001 to determine changes in strength over time.

A more "normal" life: residents', family, staff, and managers' experience of active support at a residential facility for people with physical and intellectual impairments.

Background: Active support (AS) has gained popularity as an approach for assisting people with intellectual disability to engage more fully in everyday activities. Although research has identified changes in the extent that residents are engaged in meaningful activities, the experience of stakeholders such as residents, staff, and family in AS is underexplored.

Method: A general inductive approach was used to analyse focus group and interview transcripts of residents (n = 4), staff (n = 13), and family (n = 2) about their experience of involvement in an AS pilot project at one residential care facility in New Zealand.

International Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life Basic Data Set.

Study Design: Survey of expert opinion, feedback, and development of final consensus.

Objective: Present the background, purpose, development process and results for the International Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Quality of Life (QoL) Basic Data Set.

Setting: International.

Utilisation of patient perspective to validate clinical measures of outcome following spinal cord injury.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to utilise the perspective of persons with a spinal cord injury (SCI), gained from focus groups, to validate recommended clinical measures of outcome.

Method: Clinical measures of outcome as recommended by Wood-Dauphinee and the SCI Consensus Group were categorised using the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). These were then cross-referenced to the problems of functioning identified by patients in 10 focus groups held in New Zealand as part of the International ICF Core Set project.

Measurement issues related to upper limb interventions in persons who have tetraplegia.

Measurement of upper limb function in persons with tetraplegia poses significant issues for clinicians and researchers. It is crucial that measures detect the small but significant improvements in hand function that may or may not occur as a result of our interventions. Before determining how we measure changes from upper limb interventions, we must establish what outcomes are of greatest interest, and for whom.

Use of the ICF conceptual framework to interpret hand function outcomes following tendon transfer surgery for tetraplegia.

Study Design: Clinical commentary

Objective And Setting: This paper is a clinical commentary based on the Round Table discussion on Assessment and Outcomes at the 7th International Conference on Tetraplegia: Surgery and Rehabilitation, Bologna, Italy 6-8 June, 2001. It refers specifically to the 10-year re-review undertaken in 2001 at the Spinal Unit, Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Subjects: In all, 24 tetraplegic persons at a minimum of 12 years and up to 18 years following bilateral forearm tendon transfer surgery.

Upper limb surgery for tetraplegia: a 10-year re-review of hand function.

Purpose: To perform a 10-year re-review of hand function outcome for 24 tetraplegic persons who had received bilateral tendon transfers and tenodeses.

Methods: The Lamb and Chan questionnaire with additional questions, the Quadriplegic Index of Function (QIF), the Swanson sphygmomanometer technique for hook grip, the Preston Pinch Meter (PP) for key pinch, and a digital analyzer (DA) for both hook and key pinch were the test instruments used. The QIF and DA had not been used previously.

Factors associated with thoracic spinal cord injury, lesion level and rotator cuff disorders.

Background: The study was concerned with the secondary functional compromise persons with long-term paraplegia contend with, that has been shown to be associated with wheelchair use. Of particular interest was the relationship between the level of thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI) and factors predisposing to rotator cuff disorders (RCD), one of the most common upper extremity musculoskeletal complications linked with long-term SCI. Disorders of these peri-articular structures have previously been associated with impaired trunk postural control and abnormal muscle strength ratios in both able-bodied groups and in paraplegic athletes.