The short-term effects of hot packs vs therapeutic whirlpool on active wrist range of motion for patients with distal radius fracture: A randomized controlled trial Thermotherapy is a commonly used modality to increase range of motion (ROM). An orthopedic group in Canada performed a blind randomized control trial to determine whether the use of a moist hot pack or therapeutic whirlpool was more effective at improving short term active ROM for wrist movements in patients with a distal radius fracture. The research team’s goal was to determine the optimal form of thermotherapy by testing which of these methods improved ROM the most. The trial consisted of 60 adult patients who all have recovered from a distal radius fracture. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups of 30. Each participant attended 3 consecutive therapy sessions (1 session/week). One group was assigned to receive a moist heat pack for 15 minutes, while the other group used the therapeutic whirlpool for 15 minutes and performed active ROM exercises for the wrist in the whirlpool. Wrist and forearm ROM was measured before and immediately after the heat application during each visit. Two experienced hand therapists were assigned to take the measurements and they were not told which treatment the patient received in order to eliminate bias. Active wrist…show more content… This was done by calculating the difference in ROM values before and after treatment. Then the average change per visit was calculated for each wrist ROM measurement and each of these values were used as the dependent variable in the MANOVA analysis. Another goal of the study was to determine if there was any overall change in ROM after the 3 therapy sessions. Another MANOVA analysis was used to determine any significant difference in ROM between the two treatment groups after the 3 therapy
