Using the Jebsen-Taylor test in patients after radial bone fracture

Introduction
The aim of the study was twofold. First it was to assess the usefulness of the Jebsen-Taylor test of hand function in an analysis of rehabilitation outcomes in patients after radial bone fracture and second, it was to examine whether the results of JTT correlate with other methods applied in objective assessment of patients' functional state after radial bone fracture.

Material and methods
The study population consisted of 64 patients . The study included an assessment of hand functional mobility with the use of the JTT, measurement of the hand muscle strength with a hydraulic dynamometer, measurement of the pressure strength of the thumb with a grip dynamometer and pain measurement with the VAS scale. All tests were performed before and after 21 days of rehabilitation.

Results
The time needed to perform all seven tasks included in the JTT was consistently reduced in both non-dominating and dominating hands and the results showed high reliability. Some correlations were observed between JTT and other methods of assessing outcomes of rehabilitation.

Conclusions
The JTT is a simple, reliable, objective and standardised tool for clinical assessment of the functional state of patients with various hand dysfunctions and it should be widely applied in clinical practice. We found it to be reliable, easy to administer, and comprehensive in an assessment of hand functions. It correlated with several other measurement that assess outcomes of rehabilitation and therefore it is recommended that JTT should be combined with other methods to assess rehabilitation results and provide a comprehensive evaluation of the patient.