The purpose of this study was to quantify, with integrated electromyograms(EMG), the activities of supraspinatus(SSP) and infraspinatus(ISP) muscles during various activities of daily living(ADLs) under the abduction orthosis, and to provide precaution guidance of ADLs for patients in the early postoperative period of rotator cuff repair.
Five asymptomatic women, aged 24 to 48 years old, volunteered to participate. Fine-wire(SSP) and surface(ISP) electrodes recorded the mean peak normalized(percent maximal voluntary contraction [%MVC]) EMG activity from each immobilized muscle during 16 various activities of daily living; washing the face, eating, drinking and so on.
The SSP activity was high during wiping the face (54.6%MVC), washing the face (44.0%MVC), putting on glasses (30.0%MVC) and drinking from a glass (28.4%MVC). The ISP activity was high during squeezing a towel (67.6%MVC), eating with chopsticks (44.0%MVC) and brushing teeth (32.8%MVC). The activities of face cleaning, eating and drinking exceeded 20%MVC in the SSP and ISP. The activities which should be avoided in the early postoperative patient could be selected.
