Weak For Recommendation
Hand splinting may be provided to prevent hand contracture in people with tetraplegia who are at risk of contracture.
| Hand splinting versus no intervention on prevention of hand contractures in people with tetraplegia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | People with tetraplegia | Evidence recommendation No evidence recommendation Reason: No RCTs | Weak opinion statement FOR Hand splinting may be provided to prevent hand contracture in people with tetraplegia who are at risk of contracture. |
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| I | Hand splinting | ||||||
| C | No intervention | Consensus-based opinion statement Weak for (100%) |
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| O | Contracture | ||||||
The Australian and NZ SCI Physiotherapy guideline committee recommends hand splinting to prevent hand contracture in people with tetraplegia. This is a consensus-based opinion statement supported by the opinions of the experts even though there are randomised controlled trials related to this topic. The results of these randomised controlled trials are either contradictory or inconclusive preventing an evidence recommendation. The guideline states:
Hand splinting may be provided to prevent hand contracture in people with tetraplegia.
This statement was formed by considering the balance between benefits and harms, values and preferences, resource use, personal experience, equity, accessibility, feasibility and personal experience. The results of the two randomised controlled trials were also taken into consideration.
This is a consensus-based opinion statement. Consensus-based opinion statements are less robust than evidence-based recommendations. They can be strong or weak. This is a weak consensus-based opinion statement which means that the guideline panel is confident they can probably recommend hand splinting to prevent hand contracture in people with tetraplegia based on opinion. To learn more about the this intervention go to the research evidence.