During a patient screening, the suitability of a person affected by hand paralysis for the exomotion® hand orthosis is examined. This always takes place with one of our trained care partners in a rehabilitation clinic or in the patient’s current medical supply store. We first clarify the indications and contraindications of the patient, e.g. hand-mouth, contact or minority, etc.
We ask questions such as, “What does the patient want to be able to do with both hands again?” or “What is the cause of paralysis?”.
Together we check what is possible independently with the paralyzed hand and how great the strength is in the arm, because the patient should be able to wear the orthosis all day long.
Before we put on the brace, we look for the muscle signals that are still present in the arm. Which muscle can the patient still control? Once we have found a suitable muscle, the EMG sensor is placed at this point. Via the control unit, we have the option of digitally amplifying the muscle signal, so that the smallest muscle activity is sufficient to control the orthosis.
Now we put the hand orthosis on the patient. A wide variety of gripping processes are carried out, a wide variety of things are grasped and ambidextrous activities are carried out.
In addition, a video documentation with and without orthosis is created, which can later be submitted to the health insurance company.
If we consider the hand orthosis to be suitable for the patient after the screening, he or she can take his time to consider whether he would like to have it to achieve his personal goals and then obtain a prescription from his treating physician for the treatment of exomotion® hand one.
We take 1.5-2 hours per patient for a patient screening.