When dealing with rheumatoid arthritis, the main issues of hand therapy are the treatment of hand and finger joints. We emphasize mobilisation of joints, muscle strengthening, correcting deformities by low temperature splints and joint protection. Further tasks of occupational therapy are: Informing patients about adaptive devices and training their use as well as educational programs for patients with reduced mobility of the upper limb. The most common surgery on the rheumatoid hand, that need postoperative treatment by a hand therapist are complete and limited arthrodesis of the wrist, surgical reconstruction of tendons, arthroplasty and arthrodeses of and for finger joints, and so on. At the Nordwestdeutsches Rheumazentrum St. Josef-Stift Sendenhorst we have designed a standard postoperative management for treating arthroplasty with a "Silikonspacer" in the metacarpophalangeal joints.
The main area of occupational and hand therapy interventions in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is the postoperative or conservative treatment of wrist and finger joints. The main areas of concern are to maintain the mobility of the joints, when necessary and possible mobilization of the joints, strengthen the muscles, the prophylaxis or correction of deformities with thermoplastic splints, conservative pain relief and anti-inflammatory treatment, joint protection precautions and teaching of home exercises for prophylaxis of contracture. Further areas of therapy are instruction and provision of adaptive devices for limitations of the upper and/or lower extremities, especially training of activities of daily living (ADL) and patient education.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.