Long-Arm vs Sugar-Tong



Status:Not yet recruiting
Conditions:Orthopedic
Therapuetic Areas:Orthopedics / Podiatry
Healthy:No
Age Range:4 - 12
Updated:2/20/2019
Start Date:March 2019
End Date:September 2020
Contact:Jaclyn Schipper, BA
Email:jaclyn.schipper@wustl.edu
Phone:314-273-2516

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Outcomes of Long-Arm Casting Versus Sugar-Tong Splinting of Displaced Forearm Shaft Fractures

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a sugar-tong splint is as effective as a
long-arm cast in maintaining reduction of pediatric forearm shaft fractures in a randomized,
prospective manner. Consented participants will be randomly assigned to be treated with
either a sugar-tong splint or a long-arm cast (both standard of care treatments) in REDCap.
Each participant will have a 50/50 chance of being assign to either treatment.

Forearm fractures are very common in the pediatric population and can often be treated with
closed reduction and immobilization. Immobilization techniques include long-arm casting,
short-arm casting and sugar-tong splinting. At the time of injury casts are usually split
into two using a cast saw, known as bivalving, to allow for swelling and are overwrapped at a
later time. By design sugar-tong splints allow for swelling and are overwrapped or converted
to a cast at a later time. Traditionally long-arm casts have been used as the standard mode
of immobilization for forearm fractures. Recent evidence demonstrates that long-arm casting
is equivalent to better tolerated short-arm casting as an immobilization choice for distal
third forearm fractures.1 Further work has shown that sugar-tong splints are also appropriate
for treatment of distal third forearm fractures. No study has compared the efficacy of using
a long-arm cast versus a sugar-tong splint for treatment of forearm shaft fractures.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Single or both bone forearm shaft fractures, follow-up at the St. Louis Children's
Hospital and affiliated branches

Exclusion Criteria:

- Children below 4 or above 12 years of age

- Distal radius/ulna fracture(s)

- Distal radius/ulna third shaft fracture(s)

- Proximal radius/ulna third shaft fracture(s)

- Radius/ulna fracture(s) not requiring reduction

- Open radius/ulna fracture(s)

- Radius/ulna fracture(s) requiring open reduction in the operating room

- Patient with metabolic defects

- Pathologic radius/ulna fracture(s)

- Previous fractures in the same location (radius/ulna)
We found this trial at
1
site
Saint Louis, Missouri 63110
Principal Investigator: Pooya Hosseinzadeh, MD
Phone: 314-273-2516
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mi
from
Saint Louis, MO
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