"Investigation of the Effect of Radial Nerve Mobilization on Pain, Function and Grip Strength in Patients With Hand Thumb Osteoarthritis"

Patients will be included in the study voluntarily, they will be informed about the study before their evaluation, and their consent to participate in the study will be obtained with an informed consent form. Evaluations will begin after patient consent is obtained. The patient's age, gender, height, body weight, dominant side, symptomatic side, surgical history, previous treatments for the disease, and the duration of pain will be recorded. Physical assessments will then follow. Evaluations will be made twice, before treatment and at the end of 4 weeks of treatment.

The pain level, coarse and fine grip strength, fine dexterity, functional status, and disability level of the patients will be evaluated. The evaluations made will be the same for the study and control groups. The pain level of the participants will be questioned with the visual analog scale (VAS) in three situations: rest, activity, and night, and will be recorded in cm. Factors that increase and decrease pain will also be questioned and recorded.

Coarse grip strength will be evaluated with a hydraulic hand dynamometer (Jamar®) and fine grip strength will be evaluated with a pinch meter. Grip strength measurement will be made in the standard sitting position determined by the American Association of Hand Therapists. This is the position in which the participant holds the evaluated arm next to the torso, with the elbow flexed to 90 degrees and the wrist in a neutral position. It has been shown in studies that the position of this test has high reliability for the results. During the assessment, the patient will sit in a supported chair. Fine grip strength will be measured in bipod pinch and lateral grip positions. The grip strength measurements will be repeated 3 times in a row for both sides and the patient will be asked to squeeze as hard as possible. The average value of the measurement results will be taken and recorded in kilograms.

The 9-Hole Peg test will be used to evaluate the functional status and fine dexterity of the hand. During this evaluation, the patient will sit in a comfortable position. Both parties will be evaluated separately. The patient will be taught the test to be performed first and will be allowed to make a trial. He will be asked to quickly reinsert all the sticks, starting from the position inserted in the holes and removing the last one as fast as he can using only the first two fingers of the side being evaluated. The total removal and insertion time will be recorded in seconds for each side separately.

The FIHOA (Functional Index of Hand Osteoarthritis) questionnaire will be used to evaluate the level of disability specific to the disease. The questionnaire consists of 10 items containing statements about hand use in daily life, and each item is scored between 0-3 points (0: no difficulty, 1: mild difficulty, 2: quite difficult, 3: impossible) according to the difficulty level. Total score 0-30 points. varies between As a result of this survey, a low score represents a better function, while a high score represents a worse function. It has been shown in studies that it has a high correlation with other osteoarthritis-specific questionnaires, and its validity and reliability. The Turkish version was found to be valid and reliable by Kılıçoğlu et al.