CHILDREN suffering from nerve damage or a lack of movement in their hands after an injury are recovering quickly and effectively, thanks to innovative new hand splints created at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.
After a hand fracture or dislocation, patients often suffer reduced movement as a result of their injuries.
Once healed, they need therapy to strengthen the muscles and tendons in their hand to restore their full movement.
But occupational therapists (OTs) at the Alex found children often don’t complete the exercises so to help this, the specialist staff have created inventive new splints personalised to each patient with games or mini toys to encourage children to do their exercises.
By making the exercises personal and meaningful to each individual patient a marked improvement in outcomes has been noted for patients.
Ten-year-old Lydia Amor was suffering from long-term nerve damage after breaking and dislocating three fingers.
To help her, OT Sunita Farmah built Lydia a special hand splint that involves her making specific movements to run a tiny ball through a toy maze on the back of her hand.
Completing the maze involves Lydia having to improve her wrist movement to move the ball in the splint, which has different scoring challenges so her wrist strengths – as well as her scores!
Lydia’s mum, Katie said: “Sunita has helped Lydia gain better use of her hand with her ongoing patience and creativity. She goes above and beyond and this new splint has added an element of fun to Lydia’s therapy.
Sunita said: “We look at the whole person, not just at their hand, so we try to make our treatments meaningful and personalised to them.
“We know some of our children don’t like to do the exercises they’re given, so we try to make it fun and a good challenge for them to complete.”
