Effects of taping the hand in children with cerebral palsy

Background: Thumb in palm deformity restricts hand function by preventing somatosensory input in children with cerebral palsy who have spasticity in their hands. Objectives: To investigate the effects of thenar palmar tape application with and without pressure on upper extremity function in children with cerebral palsy. Method: 45 children were randomly assigned to one of the thenar taping groups either with or without pressure or to the control group. Nine hole peg test and nine parts puzzle test were used to measure upper extremity function. The two study groups were evaluated initially, with taping 20 min later and 20 min after taping was removed. The control group was evaluated initially. 20 min later and again after 20 min. Results: Intragroup analyses showed that initially there was a difference in favor of the control group: number of pegs placed in the hole in 25 s (p = 0.032); number of puzzle parts placed in the hole in 25 s (p = 0.028). Following 20 min of application, there was no longer any difference between the groups (p = 0.458, p = 0.286 respectively). This was accepted as a manifestation of the effectiveness of taping. Intergroup analyses also showed a carry over effect 20 min after removing the tape only in the palmar pressure group (p = 0.004 and p = 0.014). Conclusion: It was concluded that taping can be an effective option for repositioning the thumb and improves upper extremity function by controlling the thumb in palm mechanically and enabling sensorial input by maintaining the correct hand position. (C) 2015 Hanley & Belfus, an imprint of Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.