BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This study assessed the potential therapeutic benefi t of using HandTutor in combination with traditional rehabilitation in a post-stroke sub-acute population. The study compares an experimental group receiving traditional therapy combined with HandTutor treatment, against a control group receiving only traditional therapy. METHOD: An assessor-blinded, randomized controlled pilot trial, was conducted in the Reuth rehabilitation unit in Israel. Thirty-one stroke patients in the sub-acute phase, were randomly assigned to one of the two groups (experimental or control) in sets of three. The experimental group (n = 16) underwent a hand rehabilitation programme using the HandTutor combined with traditional therapy. The control group (n = 15) received only traditional therapy. The treatment schedules for both groups were of similar duration and frequency. Improvements were evaluated using three indicators: (1) The Brunnstrom-Fugl-Meyer (FM) test, (2) the Box and Blocks (BandB) test and (3) improvement parameters as determined by the HandTutor software. RESULTS: Following 15 consecutive treatment sessions, a significant improvement was observed within the experimental group (95% confi dence intervals) compared with the control group: BandB p = 0.015; FM p = 0.041, HandTutor performance accuracy on x-axis and performance accuracy on y-axis p < 0.0003. CONCLUSION: The results from this pilot study support further investigation of the use of the HandTutor in combination with traditional occupational therapy and physiotherapy during post stroke hand function rehabilitation.

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