Both patients and healthy subjects were excluded from the study in case of upper-extremity disorders, psychopathology or insufficient mastering of the Dutch language.
Tracheotomy is performed in cases of upper airway obstruction or chronic pulmonary disorders.
The treating physician should consider stress fracture as a possible diagnosis in cases of upper limb pain of bony origin with no acute joint pathological findings where the pain is associated with overuse or in patients with an associated pathology.
The majority of cases achieve a satisfactory recovery without surgical intervention [ 8, 13] and, in particular, in cases of upper injuries of brachial plexus [ 5, 6].
They are widely used in Nordic countries, mostly in cases of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) and LRTI (from 31%to74%4% of cases) [ 8, 9, 12, 13].
The GPs found delayed prescribing most reasonable in cases of otitis and sinusitis while the strategy was less valued in cases of upper and lower respiratory tract infections.
In cases of total lesions, the shortening was greater in measurements of both whole limb length and forearm length, whilst in cases of upper brachial plexus lesions a subtler tendency to shortening of the forearm was observed [ 12].
In cases of upper-middle injuries (18 cases) with initially normal hand function only neurolysis was performed.
