Hand function measures for burn patients: a literature review

Abstract

Hand function is one of the most important goals of burn rehabilitation and is a consensually important functional outcome. The purpose of this article is to review the available hand function measures commonly used for burn patients and to summarize their psychometric properties and clinical utilities to serve as guidelines for clinical practice and research. An online-database search of PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsychInfo was performed. One hundred and seventeen articles were found and 23 of them met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The eight identified measurement instruments were then classified into three categories: traditional component measures, performance measures and patient-reported outcome measures. Each type of hand function measure has its unique characteristics and limitations. Traditional component measures only reflect hand impairments, and may not represent hand function status. Performance measures have not been validated in the burn population and do not correlate well with patient-reported outcomes. Patient-reported outcome measures have not been rigorously validated in the burn population. A discussion of how clinicians choose these measures reflecting the purposes of their measurements and goals of intervention is provided. Moreover, future studies are suggested to develop burn-specific hand function measures.