Novel Exercises to Facilitate Recovery of Supination and Pronation for Distal Radius Fractures Managed With a Volar Plate

The current standard of care for forearm range of motion exercises is to position the elbow in 90 degrees of flexion at the side of the body for both supination and pronation.5,6 This study will compare standard of care forearm rotation exercises to exercising with the elbow in extension to facilitate pronation and exercising with the elbow in full flexion to facilitate supination in patients who have undergone surgery with a volar plate for distal radius fractures. We hypothesize that forearm motion will be achieved in a shorter number of days and with a greater arc of motion when the exercises are done in extremes of elbow flexion and extension.

This will be a prospective, unblinded, randomized study to evaluate forearm range of motion across two groups:

Control Group: subjects will be instructed to exercise the forearm with the elbow positioned by their side, in 90° of flexion.

Test Group: subjects will be instructed to exercise the forearm with their elbow fully flexed to achieve supination and the elbow extended to achieve pronation.

Randomization will occur post-operatively after the patient has signed consent to participate. Randomization will occur through a computerized random allocation and groups will be assigned by the Clinical Research Manager or designee.