Acute Effects of Interferential Current on Edema, Pain and Muscle Strength in Patients With Distal Radius Fracture

Ege University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Edema; Radius Fractures; Pain

Treatments: Device: Electrotherapy, interferential current; Other: Control

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03438864

IF-Edema

Details and patient eligibility

About

Interferential current is a form of electrotherapy that is obtained by placing two different plates that produce medium frequency waveform current, resulting in a low frequency interferential waveform in deeper tissues. It was shown interferential current electrotherapy is beneficial for reduction of traumatic edema in tissues and pain control.

Patients with conservatively managed distal radius fractures were recruited after casts are shed, and were treated with one session(30 minutes) of different protocols of interferential current electrotherapy. Before and after therapy, they were evaluated with volumetry, hand grip strength and visual analogue scale for pain.

Enrollment: 105 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 70 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Conservatively managed distal radius fractures

Exclusion criteria

• Secondary conditions associated with edema(renal failure, congestive heart failure etc)
• Complex regional pain syndrome
• Compartment syndrome
• Contraindications for electrotherapy(cardiac pacemaker, thrombosis, pregnancy etc)
• Mental state unfit for electrotherapy
• Having treated with electrotherapy before

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

---

105 participants in 3 patient groups

10 Hz

Experimental group

Description:

Interferential current, entry frequency 4000 Hz and 4010 Hz, beat frequency 10 Hz, amplitude was individualized and increased until patients felt a comfortable tickling sensation.

Treatment:

Device: Electrotherapy, interferential current

100 Hz

Experimental group

Description:

Interferential current, entry frequency 4000 Hz and 4100 Hz, beat frequency 100 Hz, amplitude was individualized and increased until patients felt a comfortable tickling sensation.

Treatment:

Device: Electrotherapy, interferential current

Placebo-Sham Control

Sham Comparator group

Description:

No current except for first 5 seconds, device open but does not appy electrotherapy.

Treatment:

Other: Control