Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis, a disease of unknown cause, leads to deformation and dysfunction at the joints of the body. Deformation of the fingers is particularly common, and supposedly more than 500,000 people suffer from progressive dysfunction of the fingers. The patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA) often have the MP joint volar subluxation figer. In the early stage of subluxation, it is necessary to choose conservative therapy (drug therapy, equipments and hand therapy) or surgical therapy, depending on the stage of the disease progression. Under existing conditions, patients use hand therapy for functional improvement. However, it is difficult for patients to receive enough rehab by ambulatory care. The earlier study prompted the development of a therapeutic use equipment with a membrane pneumatic actuator. A membrane pneumatic actuator produces more power and requires less installation space than a conventional low pressure pneumatic actuator. The therapeutic use equipment was made by referring to rehab by hand therapy. 4 out of 5 patients succeeded in reducing MP joint subluxation thumbs by using a prototype of a therapeutic use equipment. But it is necessary to improve the prototype because it wasn't made by reproducing hand therapy after enough analysis.
