Congenital hand disorders
Research on the evaluation and treatment of congenital hand disorders
Congenital hand disorders
Deze pagina beschrijft ons wetenschappelijke onderzoek naar congenitale handaandoeningen. Informatie over de behandeling van deze aandoeningen binnen ons handenteam kunt u hier vinden.
Introduction
Every year, in the Netherlands, 2000 children are born with an anomaly of the upper extremity of which 350 comprise the hand. It concerns a wide range of anomalies, in many cases with a non-functioning or less-well functioning thumb. Since hand function diminishes 40% with a malfunctioning thumb, daily life and the child’s development can be severely disturbed.
Interventions for congenital thumb anomalies can be divided in conservative and surgical interventions. Because of the diversity of the anomalies, the complexity of the structures involved and because of the individual patient’s goals and needs, treatment differs between individuals. The goal, however, is always the same: improving functioning of the hand by creating stability, motion, strength and the possibility of opposition. Despite many surgical interventions that are performed in congenital thumb anomalies, literature limits its self mostly to describing various surgical techniques and short-term results. Since interventions typically are performed at a very young age (0-5 years), it mostly remains unclear what long-term functioning of the hand is on levels of function, activity and participation.
Our research has two main aims. A first aim is to improve, evaluate and compare treatment options. A second aim is to improve the hand assessment in patients with congenital hand disorder in order to improve diagnosis and treatment.
Our currents projects include the long-term function and outcome of congenital thumb hypoplasia and the triphalangeal thumb. In addition, we have a PhD project focusing on the overall function of patients with congenital hand deformities where we study which aspects of the hand at a functional level (e.g., strength, mobility, sensibility) are most important for functioning of the hand in daily life. In a prospective cohort study, we evaluate the effectiveness of splinting for correction of joint deformities.