The role of the hand is crucial for the performance of activities of daily living, thereby ensuring a full and autonomous life. Its motion is controlled by a complex musculoskeletal system of approximately 38 muscles. Therefore, measuring and interpreting the muscle activation signals that drive hand motion is of great importance in many scientific domains, such as neuroscience, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, robotics, prosthetics, and biomechanics. Electromyography (EMG) can be used to carry out the neuromuscular characterization, but it is cumbersome because of the complexity of the musculoskeletal system of the forearm and hand. This paper reviews the main studies in which EMG has been applied to characterize the muscle activity of the forearm and hand during activities of daily living, with special attention to muscle synergies, which are thought to be used by the nervous system to simplify the control of the numerous muscles by actuating them in task-relevant subgroups. The state of the art of the current results are presented, which may help to guide and foster progress in many scientific domains. Furthermore, the most important challenges and open issues are identified in order to achieve a better understanding of human hand behavior, improve rehabilitation protocols, more intuitive control of prostheses, and more realistic biomechanical models.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21093035 | DOI Listing |
Clin Rehabil
January 2025
College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate and review the effects of mirror therapy on upper limb function, including improvements in shoulder, elbow, forearm, wrist, and hand function, as well as coordination between the upper extremities, in patients with stroke.
Data Sources: Six databases, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, Medline Complete, PubMed, and Web of Science, were searched from database inception to 15 October 2024, as well as manual searching of Google Scholar, for relevant trials.
Review Methods: The methodological quality of the trials was assessed using version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool with five domains.
Hand Surg Rehabil
January 2025
Department of Hand Surgery, Clinique du Pré, Le Mans, France; Ultrasound-guided hand surgery center, Versailles, France.
Radial nerve compression at the arcade of Frohse is a rare but significant condition that typically presents with pain primarily after exertion and at night on the dorsal side of the forearm, more distally than tennis elbow pain, and weakness of the wrist extensors and the long fingers and thumb extensors. Traditional treatment often involves open surgery, resulting in significant scarring. This study introduces a novel percutaneous radial nerve release technique under complete ultrasound guidance and highlights its efficacy and safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Electromyogr Kinesiol
January 2025
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Human-machine interfaces using electromyography (EMG) offer promising applications in control of prosthetic limbs, rehabilitation assessment, and assistive technologies. These applications rely on advanced algorithms that decode the activation patterns of muscles contractions. This paper presents a new approach to assess and decode muscle activity by localizing the origin of individual temporal peaks in high-density surface EMG recordings from the dorsal forearm during low force finger extensions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClin Biomech (Bristol)
January 2025
Health Sciences Department, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Background: Upper limb fractures significantly alter movement, impacting function and recovery. Three-dimensional motion analysis allows precise assessment of these changes.
Methods: Sixty patients were divided into four groups: shoulder, elbow, wrist fractures, and controls.
JPRAS Open
March 2025
Department of Plastic, Reconstructive, Aesthetic, and Hand Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Background: The excision of oropharyngeal carcinoma of more than 50% of the soft palate followed by static reconstruction may result in functional deficits, including velopharyngeal insufficiency, swallowing, and speech difficulties. We describe a functional soft palate reconstruction technique aimed at restoring aeromechanical and acoustic functions, enabling swallowing without nasal regurgitation and speech with low nasalance.
Material And Methods: We developed a new operative technique, using muscle transfer and a free flap to create a dynamic reconstruction.
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