How to recover from hand trauma

  Hand trauma can cause different degrees of injury to the subcutaneous tissue, fascial space, peri-tendon tissue and contusions to the muscles, blood vessels and nerves of the fingers, resulting in different degrees of motor dysfunction and sensory dysfunction. Scar adhesions after hand trauma repair can cause limitation of tendon movement, or even tendon and ligament contracture and joint stiffness of the affected limb. Comprehensive rehabilitation treatment is to take appropriate measures to address these problems and promote the recovery of hand function. Clinical practice shows that the use of physical factor therapy can promote local blood circulation, improve tissue metabolism, promote swelling, soften scars, eliminate adhesions, and have a relaxing effect on spastic muscles and their fibers, which can relieve joint ankylosis and contracture and speed up the early recovery of the affected limb function.  Exercise therapy is the main means of restoring hand joints and muscles. The early activity can produce the squeeze pump effect, which can make the central part of tendon get sufficient nutrition and reduce edema through penetration, and can promote the stress reconstruction of tendon and rebuild the smooth tendon surface. By establishing new movement patterns through early passive and active movements, it is possible to precisely control wrist extension, finger extension and thumb extension functions to maintain joint mobility and restore muscle strength, which can effectively prevent tendon adhesion atrophy. Passive and active exercises to maintain joint mobility and muscle strength can effectively reduce adhesions between tendons and tendons and between tendons and bone, prevent muscle atrophy and joint stiffness, significantly improve the function of the first part, and enhance the patient’s ability to perform activities of daily living. Tendon endurance training and sensory training and occupational therapy not only improve the secondary pathological changes caused by the loss of nerve, but also help to relieve sensory hypersensitivity and perception in education. Perceptual re-education takes advantage of the plasticity at the central level. Sensory deviations resulting from peripheral nerve damage are corrected and reconstructed at the brain level through education in object recognition and cognition.  The key to restoration of hand function is early functional hand exercise, and early controlled activity is an effective measure to prevent tendon adhesions. Exercises to restore tendon mobility can generally be performed about 3-4 weeks after repair, and passive exercises can be started after 6 weeks. Active exercise domain passive exercise should follow the principle of gradual progress from short to long time, from less to more times, from weak to strong intensity, not rough and hard to avoid injury. Early systematic rehabilitation treatment for hand trauma dysfunction can effectively limit scar proliferation and contracture, which is an effective means to promote hand function recovery.