Blood Flow Restriction for Ulnar Sided Wrist Pain

Stanford University

Status

Invitation-only

Conditions

Ulnar Wrist Pain

Treatments

Behavioral: Blood Flow Restriction

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT06963671

80801

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine the strength, pain and functional benefits of early, low-load resistance training with blood flow restriction (BFR) in ulnar-sided wrist pain treated nonoperatively with immobilization for 4-6 weeks. Hypothesis: patients in the BFR group with have improved grip strength and patient reported outcome measure scores compared to the control group.

Full description

Patients presenting to the hand therapy or hand surgery clinic who meet inclusion criteria will be screened, consented, and enrolled. This will include administration of the blood flow restriction screening questionnaire.

Patients with non operatively managed ulnar-sided wrist pain, who have been immobilized for at least 4 weeks 0 days, but no more than 6 weeks 6 days, and are referred to Stanford's Hand Therapy clinic, will receive either standard care or a standard care home program with low-load strengthening under a blood flow restricted (BFR) condition during their therapy sessions. Patients will be assigned to groups in simultaneous enrollment in two arms. The control group will receive standard rehabilitation during therapy visits plus a home program that will be dictated based on the associated phase of rehabilitation. The treatment group will receive standard rehabilitation as a home program plus low-load resistance training with BFR application while at the hand therapy clinic for their appointments, both of which will be dictated based on the associated phase of rehabilitation. Therapists will use the OMNI-Resistance Exercise Scale for Rate of Perceived Exertion Active Muscles (OMNI-RES RPE-AM) to grade all strengthening exercises for each individual in both groups. The target RPE-AM for each exercise will be 7-9 by the last set for resistance exercises in both control and treatment groups.

Enrollment

90 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

All patients (>18 years) undergoing outpatient rehabilitation at Stanford Hand Therapy
English fluency and literacy
Able to take informed consent
Have acute or chronic ulnar-sided wrist pain referred for a course of hand therapy by a physician or advanced practice provider (APP) and were treated with continuous immobilization for 4-6 weeks.
Score of 3 or less on blood flow restriction screening questionnaire

Exclusion criteria

Concomitant injuries such as upper extremity fractures or other ligamentous injuries
TFCC surgery in the affected wrist
Non-compliance with immobilization
Patients who complete hand therapy at an outside facility
Score of 4 or more on blood flow restriction screening questionnaire