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Abstract Background Upper extremity (UE) involvement is prevalent in 73% of individuals with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), yet no AMC-specific outcome measure exists. When developing a measure specific to a population with a rare musculoskeletal condition, clinicians’ and patients’ perspectives and involvement is a crucial and necessary step. This study sought to determine the most clinically useful items for an outcome measure of UE function for children with AMC as defined by caregivers and clinicians. Methods To ensure the perspectives and needs of caregivers of children with AMC and clinicians were considered in the development of the UE measure for AMC, a Nominal Group technique (NGT) with caregivers of children with AMC (phase 1) followed by a three-round survey with clinicians (phase 2) were carried out. Results Phase 1: Eleven individuals participated in the nominal group technique and identified 32 items. The most important items were Picking up an object (n = 11), Eating (n = 10), Reaching mouth (n = 10), Getting out of bed (n = 10). Phase 2: Invitations to participate to an online survey was sent to 47 experts in the field of AMC, 20 participants completed round 1, 15 completed round 2 and 13 completed round 3. Throughout the survey, participants were asked about movement required to screen the UE, essential domains to be included in the measure, establishing a scoring guide and identifying tasks associated with joint motion and position. Conclusion A preliminary version of an UE AMC-specific outcome measure was developed with the help of caregivers’ perspectives and expert opinions.

Abstract Background After a traumatic brain injury, disturbances in the attentional processes have a direct negative effect on functional recovery and on return to complex activities. To date, there is no good attention remediation treatment available. The primary objective of this review and pilot study is to provide an overview of the research evidence and to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a tDCS protocol to improve attention disorders in patients with mild complicated to severe subacute TBI, hospitalized in an inpatient rehabilitation facility. Our secondary objective is to extract preliminary data and observational information on participants’ response to treatment. Methods Participants were recruited from a consecutive series of patients admitted to the TBI unit of a subspecialized regional rehabilitation center. They received a 20-min tDCS stimulation 3 times a week for 3 weeks. A neuropsychological evaluation was performed before and after the intervention. We collected participants’ sociodemographic and clinical characteristics as well as information about satisfaction, tolerability, and adverse effects. Results One hundred sixty-four patients were admitted between September 2018 and January 2020. One hundred fifty-eight were excluded, and 6 patients with presumed attentional deficits were enrolled. None completed the protocol as intended. No major side effects occurred. Conclusion Non-invasive brain neurostimulation is promising to enhance attention deficits in patients with TBI. Implementation of a tDCS protocol to fulfill this purpose in an intensive inpatient rehabilitation center has its limitations. We made recommendations to facilitate the implementation of similar projects in the future. Trial registration ISRCTN, ISRCTN55243064 . Registered 14 October 2020—retrospectively registered.