Rehabilitation of the hand requires a “global” approach. Assuming that half an hour of daily physiotherapy, followed by twenty-three and a half hours of immobility or incorrect movements cannot optimize the results, the task of the therapist is to instruct the patient on how to perform rehabilitation exercises.
From this assumption comes the didactic approach of rehabilitation: patients are treated regularly and learn the necessary protocol so they can continue the rehabilitation themselves even in the hours when they are not in hospital. Another important concept in rehabilitation is the earlier it starts the better. Early can mean at the beginning of physiotherapy (when the type of pathology allows it) on the second day or with the so-called “intra-operative splinting”: the orthosis can be applied directly in the operating room or a few hours after the operation.
Constant monitoring of the patient is fundamental. Controls by both the physiotherapist and the surgeon are necessary and the patient is evaluated periodically to clarify doubts or to decide any changes to the protocol. Splinting, a rehabilitative technique that is an additional tool available to the therapist, is not a substitute for classic techniques, but is a natural completion to them. Rehabilitation is not an accessory but an integral part of the treatment of the pathology and essential to obtain a good result.
