Failure to Compensate: Patients With Nerve Injury Use Their Injured Dominant Hand, Even When Their Nondominant Is More Dexterous.

OBJECTIVE: To identify how individuals respond to unilateral upper extremity peripheral nerve injury via compensation (increased use of the nondominant hand). We hypothesized that injury to the dominant hand would have a greater effect on hand use (left vs right choices). We also hypothesized that compensation would not depend on current (postinjury) nondominant hand performance because many patients undergo rehabilitation that is not designed to alter hand use. DESIGN: Observational survey, single-arm. SETTINGS: Academic research institution and referral center. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 48 adults (N=48) with unilateral upper extremity peripheral nerve injury. Another 14 declined participation. Referred sample, including all eligible patients from 16 months at 1 nerve injury clinic and 1 hand therapy clinic. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hand use (% of actions with each hand) via Block Building Task. Dexterity via Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function. RESULTS: Participants preferred their dominant hand regardless of whether it was injured: hand usage (dominant/nondominant) did not differ from typical adults, regardless of injured side (P>.07), even though most participants (77%) were more dexterous with their uninjured nondominant hand (mean asymmetry index, -0.16±0.25). The Block Building Task was sensitive to hand dominance (P=2 × 10-4) and moderately correlated with Motor Activity Log amount scores (r2=0.33, P<.0001). Compensation was associated only with dominant hand dexterity (P=3.9 × 10-3), not on nondominant hand dexterity, rehabilitation, or other patient and/or injury factors (P>.1). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with peripheral nerve injury with dominant hand injury do not compensate with their unaffected nondominant hand, even if it is more dexterous. For the subset of patients unlikely to recover function with the injured hand, they could benefit from rehabilitation that encourages compensation with the nondominant hand.

Quality of Life and Psychosocial Factors as Predictors of Pain Relief Following Nerve Surgery.

Background: Peripheral nerve injuries may result in pain, disability, and decreased quality of life (QoL). Pain is an incompletely understood experience and is associated with emotional and behavioral qualities. We hypothesized that pain following peripheral nerve surgery could be predicted by changes in emotions or QoL postoperatively. Methods: Using prospectively collected data, a retrospective study design was used to evaluate the relationships among pain, QoL, and psychosocial factors in patients who underwent peripheral nerve surgery. Patients completed questionnaires rating pain; impact of pain on QoL, sadness, depression, frustration, anger, and hopefulness before surgery; and each postoperative follow-up visit. Multilevel modeling was used to assess the concurrent and lagged relationships between pain and psychosocial factors. Results: Increased pain was concurrently associated with decreased hopefulness (P = .001) and increased the impact on QoL, sadness, depression, and anger (P < .001). In lagged analyses, the impact on QoL and anger prospectively predicted pain (P < .001 and P = .02, respectively). Pain predicted subsequent scores of QoL, sadness, depression, anger, and hopefulness (P < .01). Having an upper limb nerve injury and self-report of "no comment for childhood trauma" were predictors of postsurgical pain. Conclusion: Psychosocial measures and pain are reciprocally related among patients who underwent surgery for peripheral nerve injuries or compression. Our study provides evidence of the important relationships among psychosocial factors, pain, and outcome and identifies treatment targets following nerve surgery.