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Semi-rigid casts effective, and comfortable for pediatric forearm fractures
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VIENNA — Compared with rigid casts, investigators found semi-rigid casts were acceptable to children with minimally displaced forearm fractures, as well as their parents, based on results presented 1 June at the 18th EFORT Annual Congress in Vienna.
Mihir Bakshi, MD, and colleagues randomized 249 children with minimally displaced forearm fractures (mean age 9 years) to treatment with 123 rigid casts and 126 soft casts (BSN Medical). Patients were treated at a fracture clinic at a major paediatric hospital.
Investigators sent a questionnaire to the patients’ families 6 weeks after injury at the typical time of cast removal to determine cast comfort, ease of removal, any time patients and/or their caregivers lost in attending a final clinic visit for cast removal and overall satisfaction.
“From this, semi-rigid casts for minimally displaced forearm fractures are safe and effective. They save time and money and are more comfortable for patients than traditional rigid casts,” Bakshi said.
Overall, a soft cast “looks very similar to a traditional rigid cast, however a rigid cast has to be removed by a plaster saw,” he said.
The plaster staff at the clinic gave the plaster casts a better rating than the semi-rigid casts for ease of application and moldability.
The parents gave the soft casts a median comfort score of 5 vs. a score of 4 for rigid casts, Bakshi said. “The two groups performed similarly in all other areas, including overall satisfaction,” he said. – by Susan M. Rapp
Reference:
Williams N, et al. Paper #1336. Presented at: 18th EFORT Annual Congress: 31 May - 2 June 2017, Vienna.
Disclosure: Bakshi reports no relevant financial disclosures.