Should a patient with a suspected scaphoid fracture be treated with cast? An RCT

Project summary

Two different treatment strategies are compared to treat suspected scaphoid fractures. scaphoid fractures are difficult to see on röntgen pictures made shortly after an accident. Therefore, many suspected fractures are treated by the application of a plaster arm for two weeks, only 10% of the suspected cases is a real fracture. The other treatment is the application of a pressure bandage for 3 days. For this multicenter collaboration patients with suspected fractures will be treated using one of the two methods and both clinically and radiologically assessed after two weeks. Comparing the effectiveness and costs of each treatment would also help to determine whether we could avoid unnecessary plaster arms.

Two different treatment strategies are compared to treat suspected scaphoid fractures. Comparing the effectiveness and costs of each treatment would also help to determine whether we could avoid the application of unnecessary plaster arms.