title: Effect of exercise on microsurgical hand tremor.
abstract: This study investigated the effects of upper-body and aerobic/lower-body-only (nonupper-body) exercise on microsurgical hand tremor. Subjects were given a task of holding a microsurgical needle tip over a small target, with video-microscopic documentation immediately before and 0, 2, 4, 8, and 24 h after either upper-body or nonupper-body (aerobic) exercise. Tremor was quantified by the amount of time the needle was maintained within a 100 x 100-microm target zone and the number of times the needle extruded from the zone. Both upper-body and aerobic-only exercise groups had significant increases in tremor immediately after exercise (P < 0.02), with a return to baseline tremor 2 h after exercise in the aerobic group and only a slightly prolonged return to baseline (by 4 h) in the majority of upper-body exercise subjects. These findings demonstrate that microsurgical hand tremor increases following exercise, but returns to baseline within 4 h in the majority of individuals, particularly after aerobic-only workouts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Brian C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Cooley
mesh_terms: D015444:Exercise; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008866:Microsurgery / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D009339:Needles; D013997:Time Factors; D014202:Tremor / Q000503:physiopathology*