Well-arm Exercise in Distal Radius Fractures

Henry Ford Health

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Distal Radius Fracture

Treatments: Behavioral: Well-arm Exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04089709

11912

Details and patient eligibility

About

A single center randomized control study. Patients >18 years with isolated distal radius fractures treated non-operatively will be randomly assigned to either the treatment group (exercise of contralateral "well" arm) or control group (standard fracture care and rehabilitation).

Full description

Distal radius fractures are common injuries, especially in the aging population. Fracture healing requires immobilization of the injury, which inevitably leads to muscle atrophy and joint stiffness. This strength lost during immobilization can be problematic in patients who are already de-conditioned at baseline. Previous research using healthy participants found that exercising a non-immobilized, "well", arm helped attenuate muscle atrophy in the contralateral immobilized arm. The study aims to answer the following questions: Does exercise of the contralateral arm prevent muscle atrophy and weakness of the injured arm? Does exercise of the contralateral arm improve pain scores in the injured arm

Enrollment: 10 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adults >18 years with an isolated distal radius fracture treated non-operatively

Exclusion criteria

• Operative treatment, additional injures, previous injury to same arm, neuropathy or neuromuscular disease, dementia

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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10 participants in 2 patient groups

Study arm

Experimental group

Description:

Patients randomized to this group will be provided exercises to perform with the uninjured arm once daily for 3 months.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Well-arm Exercise

Control arm

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients randomized to this group will not be provided exercises for the "well-arm" and will be managed according to the current standard of care.