Dorsal Splint or Circular Cast for Colles' Fracture?

St. Olavs Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Colles' Fracture

Treatments: Procedure: dorsal splint; Procedure: plaster cast

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00470691

StOlavsH-ort-radius

Details and patient eligibility

About

At our hospital, all Colles' fractures deemed suitable for conservative treatment are reduced and immobilised with a plaster of Paris dorsal splint which is converted to a complete cast after 10 days. According to individual factors such as age, general health and radiological results after 10 days, some patients with severe redisplacement are readmitted to hospital for surgery.

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether, during the first 10 days of immobilisation, a complete plaster cast or a dorsal plaster splint best retains the alignment of a reduced Colles' fracture. In addition, we aim to compare the complication rates of the two methods.

Enrollment: 72 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 50+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• women 50 years and older
• Colles' fracture due to low energy trauma

Exclusion criteria

• high energy trauma
• age under 50 years
• dementia

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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72 participants in 2 patient groups

complete plaster cast

Experimental group

Description:

reduction and a complete plaster cast,

Treatment:

Procedure: plaster cast

dorsal plaster splint

Active Comparator group

Description:

reduction and a dorsal plaster splint.

Treatment:

Procedure: dorsal splint