The Science Behind Wrist-Aid MD
Wrist-Aid MD was developed to increase the area and circularity of the median nerve, and thus relieve pressure (Ablove 1994), without surgery and without excessive force and cumbersome designs.
Biomechanics and Physiology
The image below shows an MRI cross-section of the wrist before the Wrist-Aid MD is applied and after. Wrist-Aid MD (yellow) decompresses the median nerve (circled in red) and improves its circularity.
Clinical Results
The safety and efficacy of Wrist-Aid MD was tested in a 2016 pilot clinical study, wherein patients wore Wrist-Aid MD daily for 8-10 hours a day for 4 weeks.
We used a clinically validated patient rating system called the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) to quantify change in patient's symptoms and functional disability due to to carpal tunnel syndrome. The questionnaire gives a score on a 1 to 5 scale that quantifies the patient's severity from none (1) to worst (5).
Daily wear of Wrist-Aid MD for 1 month led to:
-
15% reduction in symptom severity
-
72% of patients experiencing a reduction in symptom severity
-
Nighttime and daytime pain severity reduced by 15-20%
-
Reduced symptoms persisting up to 2 months post-treatment
Product Design
Unlike the majority of traditional and dynamic splints, Wrist-Aid MD was designed to be worn on the wrist to allow for free movement of the wrist with minimal impediment during daily activities. Its minimalist design allows it to blend in with whatever you are wearing and doesn't stand out like a big black brace.
Wrist-Aid MD may seem simple - consisting of only an orthotic arch attached to your wrist by an adhesive. But the choice of materials and the exact shape and size of the device plays a huge part into its performance.
We conducted research on multiple polymer and adhesive options to ensure that the materials chosen are hypoallergenic and biocompatible and would stay on for at least 8 hours a day on different skin types. We then went through several revisions of the shape to ensure increased comfort and improved coverage of different wrist shapes, while maintaining strength and performance of the orthotic.
Wrist-Aid MD has gone through several prototype updates over 5 years of research to arrive at its current optimized design.
With this knowledge and data, we designed Wrist-Aid MD in 3 sizes with curvatures optimized for the main types of wrists: small and rounded, flat and wide, and all wrist shapes in between.