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Measurement of a number of indices of hand and movement angles in pianists with overuse disorders.

Authors :
Sakai N
Shimawaki S
Source :
The Journal of hand surgery, European volume [J Hand Surg Eur Vol] 2010 Jul; Vol. 35 (6), pp. 494-8. Date of Electronic Publication: 2010 Apr 28.
Publication Year :
2010

Abstract

Abduction angles of the thumb and little finger, hand span, length of thumb, middle finger and little finger were measured using radiographs of the right hand with the thumb and the little finger abducted, in a comparative study of 220 pianists with overuse disorder and 62 unaffected pianists. Overuse disorders included tenosynovitis, lateral and medial epicondylitis, forearm flexor muscle pain, distal tendinitis of the wrist extensors and flexors and intrinsic muscle pain. Hand span or other hand size parameters showed significant differences, while abduction angles showed no difference. The patients' group had smaller hand size than the controls when analyzed for tenosynovitis, epicondylitis and muscle pain. From these results we hypothesize that pianists with small hands tend to hyper-abduct and hyper-extend the thumb to attain greater hand span. Their little finger is also stiffer and the hypothenar muscle and the wrist flexors need greater strength to resist the reaction force in each piano key.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2043-6289
Volume :
35
Issue :
6
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
The Journal of hand surgery, European volume
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
20427408
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1177/1753193409352405