Hand assistive device with suction cup (HADS) technology for poststroke patients.

A stroke is a neurological disease that primarily causes paralysis. Besides paraplegia, all other types of paralysis affect the upper extremity. Advanced technologies, such as wearable devices and rehabilitation regimens, are also being developed to enhance the functional ability of a stroke person to grasp and release daily living objects. In this research, we developed a rehabilitation functional assist device combining a flexion and extension mechanism with suction cup technology (hybrid technology) to help post-stroke patients improve their hand grip strength in day-to-day grasping activities. Ten poststroke hemiplegia patients were studied to test the functional ability of the impaired hand by wearing and not wearing the device. The outcomes were validated by three standard clinical tests, such as the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - Hand Functional Test (TRI-HFT), the Chedoke Arm Hand Activity Inventory (CAHAI-9), and the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) with overall score improvements of 14.5 ± 3.8-25 ± 2.2 (

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.