Electrical stimulation and biofeedback effect on recovery of tenodesis grasp: A controlled study

Objective: Evaluate the effectiveness of electrical stimulation and biofeedback on the recovery of tenodesis grasp in tetraplegic individuals during the initial phase of acute rehabilitation. Design: A 2 x 2 block design was used with subjects randomized to treatment groups. Forty-five subjects completed the study. Setting: Inpatient occupational therapy department. Subjects: Inpatients with tetraplegia, first admission for rehabilitation after an acute spinal cord injury. Interventions: The four treatment groups were. conventional treatment, electrical stimulation, biofeedback, and combined electrical stimulation and biofeedback. The treatment period was between 5 and 6 weeks, Main Outcome Measures: Manual muscle testing and scaring of activities of daily living performance by a blinded evaluator. Results: All four treatment groups showed improvements. No treatment group was superior to the others. Conclusions: Biofeedback and electrical stimulation alone or in combination offer no advantages over conventional rehabilitation treatment of wrist extensors in tetraplegic patients after spinal cord injury. (C) 1996 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation