If you’ve ever experienced a hand or wrist injury, you know how frustrating an experience it can be. We use our upper extremities for countless daily tasks - from making dinner to driving a car to typing an email - and an injury to your hand or wrist can keep you from doing many of your favorite activities.
Because of the impact these injuries have, you want to help your patients with hand or wrist injuries recover as quickly as possible. To help you in that goal, MedBridge has a wide range of hand therapy exercises you can assign to your patients using our HEP Builder. In this article, you’ll learn more about what resources MedBridge offers to support patients with hand and wrist injuries.
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Locating Hand Therapy Exercises
The easiest way to find all available hand therapy exercises is to use the list filter in the HEP Builder.
- Head to www.medbridge.com and log in to your account. From your dashboard, hover over Patient Engagement and select Home Exercise Program. From here, you’ll either be taken straight to the builder, or can select a patient and then navigate to the builder.
- Select the List filter on the left hand side.
- Select Specialty, then select Hand Therapy.
- Make sure you’re sorting by most recent to see the latest exercises we’ve added to the library.
The MedBridge HEP library includes hundreds of hand therapy exercises, so it can be difficult to know where to start. Let’s look at a few common diagnoses and exercises you can use to treat them. You can find any of these exercises right away by pasting their name into the search bar of the HEP Builder.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common cause of median nerve compression and can cause significant discomfort for your patients. It’s important to assist your patients in symptom management with a well-rounded home program. Consider assigning some of the exercises below from the MedBridge HEP Builder.
- Median Nerve Gliding: Proximal (see video above)
- Median Nerve Flossing: Tray
Tip: Once you add one exercise to a program, the MedBridge HEP builder will suggest additional exercises that are commonly used together by other MedBridge clinicians. If you’re struggling to find an exercise for your patient, start by adding one exercise and see what else MedBridge recommends.
Thumb CMC Joint Osteoarthritis Exercises
Thumb stabilization exercises have become an increasingly popular treatment for Thumb CMC Joint Osteoarthritis. Below, you’ll find a list of exercises you can use to treat this condition.
- Thumb Stabilization Web Space Release: Using Other Hand
- Thumb Stabilization Web Space Release: Using Another Object
- Thumb Stabilization: “C” Position Isometric
- Thumb Stabilization: “C” Isometric Around Ball
- Thumb Stabilization: Isotonic First Dorsal Interosseous, Holding a Ball
Tip: You don't always need to search for a full exercise name. Our search function will identify any exercises with the term you enter included in the name. For example, if you just search for “thumb stabilization,” the exercise search will return all five exercises above and more.
Distal Radius Fracture
If your patient is dealing with a fracture, you’ll want to coordinate with the orthopedist to determine if and when a patient is ready for home exercises. Once you’ve determined they are ready, consider assigning the exercises below in the MedBridge GO app.
- Wrist AROM Dart Thrower’s Motion
- Wrist Flexion Isometric with Forearm Pronated
- Isometric Wrist Extension Pronated
This article just scratches the surface of the MedBridge HEP Library. Our library features over 8,000 exercise and education resources, and we’re always adding more new content to better support our clinician partners. Check out the HEP library regularly to find new resources you can use to help your patients reach their goals faster.