Hand-opener orthosis

Abstract

This invention primarily aims to help patients having difficulty opening their hands such as those with complete or partial hand paralysis due to brain stroke, spinal cord injury and other neuromuscular, congenital problems, soft tissue contractures, and arthritis by: Keeping the hand open in normal joint positions when not in use; opening the hand after pinching or grasping; guiding the fingers and thumb through normal biomechanical joint movements during pinching or grasping; preventing hand joint deformities; splinting, supporting and aligning joints; and graduated stretching of soft-tissue contractures. The apparatus is a bent spring inserted between the fingers and the thumb to keep them open while allowing the fingers and the thumb to approximate involuntarily during muscular hypertonicity of the hand or voluntarily during pinching or grasping activities.