The prehensile movements of the human hand

Abstract

Napier's classic paper points out that the nature of the intended activity fi nally infl uences the pattern of the grip. He distinguishes between the 'precision grip' and the 'power grip' and states that these patterns, 'either separately or in combination, provide the anatomical basis for all prehensile activities, whether skilled or unskilled'. This paper reviewed the movements of the hand as a whole dividing hand movements into prehensile and non-prehensile. The limitations of the classifi cation systems of hand function at that time are discussed. A system is proposed to divide the prehensile movements into precision grip and power grip, and a detailed description of the functional anatomy of each is given.