Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29954401›Full record

Trial reportJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2018

Assisting hand function after spinal cord injury with a fabric-based soft robotic glove.

Leonardo Cappello, Jan T Meyer, Kevin C Galloway, Jeffrey D Peisner, Rachael Granberry, Diana A Wagner, Sven Engelhardt, Sabrina Paganoni, Conor J Walsh

Open access · goldAbstract readClinical Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
73citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
14.0field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

73 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 242 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. AI in Medical Questionnaires: Scoping ReviewJournal of medical Internet research · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Trial
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Article
  20. Article

13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Leonardo CappelloJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Jan T MeyerJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Kevin C GallowayJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Jeffrey D PeisnerJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Rachael GranberryJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Diana A WagnerJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Sven EngelhardtJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
Sabrina PaganoniDepartment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, 300 First Ave, Boston, MA, 02129, USA.
Conor J WalshJohn A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA. walsh@seas.harvard.edu.
Harvard University · USLos Angeles Pierce College · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSpinal cord injury is a devastating condition that can dramatically impact hand motor function. Passive and active assistive devices are becoming more commonly used to enhance lost hand strength and dexterity. Soft robotics is an emerging discipline that combines the classical principles of robotics with soft materials and could provide a new class of active assistive devices. Soft robotic assistive devices enable a human-robot interaction facilitated by compliant and light-weight structures. The scope of this work was to demonstrate that a fabric-based soft robotic glove can effectively assist participants affected by spinal cord injury in manipulating objects encountered in daily living.

methodsThe Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Hand Function Test was administered to 9 participants with C4-C7 spinal cord injuries to assess the functionality of the soft robotic glove. The test included object manipulation tasks commonly encountered during activities of daily living (ADL) and lift force measurements. The test was administered to each participant twice; once without the assistive glove to provide baseline data and once while wearing the assistive glove. The object manipulation subtests were evaluated using a linear mixed model, including interaction effects of variables such as time since injury. The lift force measures were separately evaluated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

resultsThe soft robotic glove improved object manipulation in ADL tasks. The difference in mean scores between baseline and assisted conditions was significant across all participants and for all manipulated objects. An improvement of 33.42 ± 15.43% relative to the maximal test score indicates that the glove sufficiently enhances hand function during ADL tasks. Moreover, lift force also increased when using the assistive soft robotic glove, further demonstrating the effectiveness of the device in assisting hand function.

conclusionsThe results gathered in this study validate our fabric-based soft robotic glove as an effective device to assist hand function in individuals who have suffered upper limb paralysis following a spinal cord injury.

Indexed as

Exoskeleton DeviceActivities of Daily LivingAdultAgedFemaleHandHand StrengthHumansMaleMiddle AgedRoboticsSpinal Cord InjuriesYoung AdultActivities of daily livingAssistive wearable robotFabric-based robotSoft robotic gloveSpinal cord injury

Identifiers

PMID29954401
PMCPMC6022347
OpenAlexW2810780167

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.