Conservative Treatment of Proximal Humeral Fractures

Hospital del Mar

Status: Completed

Conditions: Shoulder Fractures

Treatments: Procedure: conservative treatment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03217344

2016/6588/I

Details and patient eligibility

About

Optimal treatment of proximal humeral fractures is yet to be defined. Many of them can be treated non-operatively. The question remains on how long do we have to immobilize non-operatively treated proximal humeral fractures?

Full description

There is still controversy on best treatment of proximal humeral fractures. While some authors propose surgical treatment other advocate for conservative treatment. Traditionally, fractures treated non-operatively undergo a 3-week period of immobilization followed by progressive rehabilitation program. Nevertheless, there is little evidence to support a 3-week immobilization period. The purpose of this study is to bring evidence to support either a 1-week immobilization or 3-week immobilization period in non-operatively treated proximal humeral fractures.

Enrollment: 130 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 60 to 85 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients ≥ 60 yo and < 85 yo
• Acute fractures less than 1 week evolution
• Conservative treatment decided by orthopedic surgeon
• Contact between humeral head and humeral shaft.
• No gleno-humeral dislocation
• No previous surgery

Exclusion criteria

• Cognitive impairment

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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130 participants in 2 patient groups

1-week

Experimental group

Description:

patients undergoing 1-week immobilization period

Treatment:

Procedure: conservative treatment

3-week

Experimental group

Description:

patients undergoing 3-week immobilization period

Treatment:

Procedure: conservative treatment