[Effectiveness of using a hardware complex with biofeedback in the rehabilitation of children with dysfunction of the upper limbs].

The upper limb is of exceptional importance for human life as an organ of cognitive and practical activity. Fine motor skills of hands are a set of small, highly coordinated, precise and coordinated movements of varying degrees. Diseases and injuries of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems lead to violations of fine motor skills. Effective programs for medical rehabilitation of hand and fingers include using biofeedback devices (BFB).

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Efficiency evaluation of the hardware-software complex with BFB in restoring the impaired function of the upper limb in children.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The clinical study included 79 patients aged 4 to 18 years with dysfunction of the upper limb not higher than level III according to MACS (The Manual Ability Classification System), who were divided by simple randomization into the main group (49 patients) who received 21 days of a comprehensive rehabilitation program (physiotherapy exercises, paretic muscle massage, mechanotherapy, hydrokinesiotherapy, methods of apparatus physiotherapy) using a hardware-software complex, and a comparison group (30 patients), in which the complex rehabilitation program did not include biofeedback procedures.

RESULTS: This performed prospective open randomized comparative study revealed the effectiveness of the standard rehabilitation program in combination with training on the BFB complex (main group) to be higher than using only the standard program. After treatment, patients of the main group showed a noticeable decrease in the degree of muscle spasticity in the affected limb, strengthening of muscle strength, improvement of fine and gross motor skills of the hands, and improvement of manual skills.

CONCLUSION: The use of a hardware-software complex with biofeedback in children with dysfunction of upper limbs increases effectiveness of the rehabilitation program.