Efficacy of Half-length vs. Standard-sized Short Arm splint in Soft Tissue Injuries of the Hand and Wrist: a Randomized Controlled Trial

INTRODUCTION: Hand and wrist soft tissue injuries are common orthopedic problems that are traditionally treated with short arm splint, which covers the forearm to 1 cm distal to the elbow crease. OBJECTIVE: The present study was conducted to compare the treatment efficacy of traditional standard-size splint with half-length short arm splint. METHOD: In this randomized, controlled, clinical trial, patients with hand and wrist soft tissue injuries were randomly assigned to two groups. Group one received standard-sized short arm splints and the other group received half-length short arm splints. The swelling and pain scores were compared between the groups by the end of weeks one, two and three. RESULTS: A total of 256 patients with a mean age of 36.96 ± 12.27 years were enrolled in this study, and 71.9% of them were male. No statistically significant differences were observed in terms of swelling between the two groups after one and two weeks (P=0.41, P=0.18). None of the patients had swelling after three weeks. No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of the pain score after one, two and three weeks (P=0.47, P=0.29, P=0.92). CONCLUSION: In this study, half-length short arm splints were found to be as effective as standard short arm splints.