Rehabilitation and Cortical Remodeling After Surgical Intervention for Spinal Cord Injury

"Subjects will remain seated in their own wheelchair in front of the InMotion Hand™ Robot (Interactive Motion Technologies, Massachusetts, MA, Figure 6) facing a video screen.~The arm of the participants will be abducted, forearm supported, and hand grasping a cone shaped handle. Velcro straps will lightly hold the forearm and fingers secure. The InMotion Hand™ robot attaches to the InMotion Arm™ robots to provide 'assisted-as-needed'™ gross grasp and release motion and support for functional reach. In each session, patients perform a total of 1024 movement repetitions (Cortes et al., 2013). Patients will receive a total of 18 sessions (3x/week, 6 weeks) comprising one hour of interactive hand robotic training. The interactive robotic features involve visuomotor task, moving the robotic manipulandum according to targets on a computer screen mounted at eye level."

C5 injury; Teres minor branch of axillary nerve transferred to long head of triceps branch of radial nerve (RN); Brachialis branch of musculocutaneous nerve to anterior interosseous nerve (AIN); Supinator branch of RN to posterior interosseous nerve (PIN). C6 injury; Teres minor branch of axillary nerve to long head of triceps branch of RN; Extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB) branch of RN to AIN; Supinator branch of RN to PIN. C7 injury with preserved triceps, loss of grasp/release; Pronator teres branch of median nerve to AIN; Terminal branch of ECRB branch of RN to flexor pollicis longus branch of AIN; Supinator branch of RN transferred to PIN. C7 injury with preserved triceps/finger extension, loss of grasp; Pronator teres branch of median nerve to AIN; Terminal branch of ECRB branch of RN to flexor pollicis longus branch of AIN.