Home intervention for children and adolescents with unilateral trans-radial and partial carpal reduction deficiencies

Current training interventions assessing pediatric functional motor skills do not account for children and adolescents with upper limb reductions who utilize a prosthesis. Prosthesis rejection showed that 1 out of 5 prosthesis users will reject their prosthesis due to lack of durability, lack of function, not meeting the participant’s needs, perceived lack of need, and medical restrictions indicating that prosthetic users believed they were more functional without the device. It was hypothesized that an 8-week Home Intervention program will result in significant improvements in gross manual dexterity, bimanual coordination, and the functional activities performed during the program. It was also hypothesized that the novel Prosthesis Measurement of Independent Function (PMIF) score will reflect the Home Intervention performance improvements. Five pediatric participants (ages 5–19 years) with congenital upper limb reductions were fitted with a 3D printed upper extremity prosthesis for their affected limb. Participants then completed the 8-week Home Intervention which included Training activities completed 2×/week for 8 weeks and Non-Training activities completed only at week 1 and week 8. Participant’s times were recorded along with each participant receiving a PMIF score ranging from 0 = unable to complete activity, to 7 = complete independence with activity completion. Results showed a decrease in overall averaged activity times amongst all activities. For all activities performed, individual averaged time decreased with the exception of Ball Play which increased over the 8-week intervention period. There was significant interaction for Home Intervention performance with F = 2.904 (p = 0.003). All participants increased their PMIF scores to 7 (complete independence) at the end of the 8 week intervention period. Decreases in time averages and increases in PMIF scores indicate that learning and functional use of the prostheses have occurred amongst the pediatric participants.