Soft-robotic Glove Support of High-demand Tasks

A promising innovative approach to improve hand function is to integrate exercise therapy with support of activities of daily life using an assistive device. This is possible using a wearable soft-robotic glove that supports hand grip. With this glove, performance of functional activities can be supported directly, while also facilitating repeated use of the affected arm and hand during functional daily activities. One of our previous studies showed that besides a direct support effect, a therapeutic effect on performance was found after several weeks of using the soft-robotic glove as support during ADL. However, several participants reported complaints of increased pain and/or overload, mainly at the beginning of the trial. Clinicians suspect that a (too) high intensity of hand use compared to normal is contributing to this observation. This might be related to more fatigue experienced when using the glove in high-demand tasks, due to a larger movement capacity (faster, further, more repetitions) and can be associated with decreased blood perfusion/lower saturation levels at muscular level and altered muscle activation and movement coordination. The primary objective is to examine the effect of use of the assistive soft-robotic glove during strenuous ADL tasks on the kinematic movement profile, compared to not using the soft-robotic glove. Secondary objectives are to examine whether pain or discomfort is experienced in strenuous activities with the soft-robotic glove as well as the characteristics and locations of such pain/discomfort, and to examine whether use of the glove is associated with increased handgrip strength, larger number of ADL task repetitions, diminished blood perfusion / reduced tissue saturation at the muscle and/or changes in muscle activity. The study is set-up as a cross-sectional intervention study with one measurement session, where participants will perform maximum handgrip strength tests and high-demand ADL-tasks with and without the soft-robotic glove. The aim is to include 20 participants in total, 10 of which will be frail elderly and the other 10 will be neuromuscular patients, all suffering from reduced hand function. All participants will perform each movement task with and without the soft-robotic glove. The soft-robotic glove used in the study is the Carbonhand system (Bioservo Technologies, Sweden). It is a CE-marked medical device and it consists of a glove that supports finger flexion via sewn-in tendons and a control unit housing the actuators that pull on the tendons and the batteries. The grip support is activated by applying very light pressure on sensors in the fingertips of the glove, and de-activated by releasing the pressure on the sensors. After execution of all tasks with and without glove, differences in outcome measures will be compared between glove conditions.