Effect of gripping exercise on the radius bone mass of patients with Colles fracture

Aim: To study the influence of gripping exercise on the radius bone density of patients with Colles fracture by comparison of gripping exercise with traditional functional training methods. Methods: Totally 43 patients with primary Colles fracture were treated with manual diaplasis and small splint immobilization. All the patients were randomly divided into control group (n = 20) and exercise group (n = 23). From the second day after fixation, the patients in the exercise group took the grip exerciser 3 times a day, and 1 to 2 minutes for each time, while patients in the control group only did some simple wrist activity. The small splints were dismantled after 4 weeks. Six weeks after fixation, the bone width (BW) of radius, bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) of fractured radiuses were measured with the HB-6012 two-dimensional single photon bone density machine. Results: There was significant difference in BW of radius between the exercise group [(2.31 ± 6.14) cm] and control group [(1.97 ± 0.16) cm] (t = 2.548, P < 0.05), Very significant difference was found in BMC between the exercise group [(0.874 ± 0.150) g /cm] and control group [(0.620 ± 0.140) g/cm] (t = 2.987, P < 0.01) . BMD in the exercise group [(0.382 ± 0.070) g/cm²] was very significantly different from that in the control group [(0.312 ± 0.020) g/cm²] (t = 3.243, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Gripping exercise can prevent the decrease of the radius bone density after Colles' fracture treated with small splint immobilization.