Dr Olga Politikou

Dr Politikou and team from Clinical Laboratory for Bionic Extremity, Reconstruction, Department of Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Austria. Dr Olga Politikou’s research project “Nerve transfers for cognitive reinnervation of spastic muscles in stroke patients.” involves a a highly innovative approach to improve symptom recovery, and improve the possibility for subsequent bionic hand reconstruction in patients with upper motor neuron syndrome after stroke. The project is directed primarily towards investigations of the functional recovery and new volitional control of spastic muscles in upper extremity after cognitive re-innervation with nerve transfers, as well as evaluation of the intuitive myosignals of the newly cognitive re-innervated muscles, in highly selected patients with severe hand deformity, chronic stiffness and poor sensibility.

 

Dr Brigitte van Der Heijden

Dr van der Heijden and team from Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Dr Brigitte van Der Heijden’s research project “Diagnostic performance of dynamic four-dimensional computed tomography (4D CT) compared to arthroscopy for analyzing scapholunate instability.” is directed towards evaluating the diagnostic performance (sensitivity and specificity) of 4D CT scans of the wrist, and  the possibilities to utilize 4D CT scans rather than arthroscopy for the diagnosis of functionally relevant scapho-lunate ligament injuries. The hypothesis of the study is that 4D CT scans can be used as a first-choice non-invasive imaging modality to diagnose SLI and to discriminate SLI from other causes of wrist pain. Arthroscopy can then be reserved for those patients with inconclusive 4D CT scans or as a therapeutic procedure.

Both winners received 25.000 € respectively as a support for their projects.