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Blood Flow Restriction for Ulnar Sided Wrist Pain

What is the Effect of Low-load Blood Flow Restriction Training in the Nonoperative Rehabilitation of Ulnar-sided Wrist Pain?

Status
Enrolling by invitation
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06963671
Enrollment
90
Registered
2025-05-09
Start date
2025-08-11
Completion date
2028-12-31
Last updated
2026-08-14

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Ulnar Wrist Pain

Keywords

blood flow restriction

Brief summary

The purpose of this study is to determine the strength, pain and functional benefits of early, low-load resistance training with blood flow restriction (BFR) in ulnar-sided wrist pain treated nonoperatively with immobilization for 4-6 weeks. Hypothesis: patients in the BFR group with have improved grip strength and patient reported outcome measure scores compared to the control group.

Detailed description

Patients presenting to the hand therapy or hand surgery clinic who meet inclusion criteria will be screened, consented, and enrolled. This will include administration of the blood flow restriction screening questionnaire. Patients with non operatively managed ulnar-sided wrist pain, who have been immobilized for at least 4 weeks 0 days, but no more than 6 weeks 6 days, and are referred to Stanford's Hand Therapy clinic, will receive either standard care or a standard care home program with low-load strengthening under a blood flow restricted (BFR) condition during their therapy sessions. Patients will be assigned to groups in simultaneous enrollment in two arms. The control group will receive standard rehabilitation during therapy visits plus a home program that will be dictated based on the associated phase of rehabilitation. The treatment group will receive standard rehabilitation as a home program plus low-load resistance training with BFR application while at the hand therapy clinic for their appointments, both of which will be dictated based on the associated phase of rehabilitation. Therapists will use the OMNI-Resistance Exercise Scale for Rate of Perceived Exertion Active Muscles (OMNI-RES RPE-AM) to grade all strengthening exercises for each individual in both groups. The target RPE-AM for each exercise will be 7-9 by the last set for resistance exercises in both control and treatment groups.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALBlood Flow Restriction

The treatment group will receive standard rehabilitation as a home program plus low-load resistance training with BFR application while at the hand therapy clinic for their appointments

Sponsors

Stanford University
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SEQUENTIAL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* All patients (\>18 years) undergoing outpatient rehabilitation at Stanford Hand Therapy * English fluency and literacy * Able to take informed consent * Have acute or chronic ulnar-sided wrist pain referred for a course of hand therapy by a physician or advanced practice provider (APP) and were treated with continuous immobilization for 4-6 weeks. * Score of 3 or less on blood flow restriction screening questionnaire

Exclusion criteria

* Concomitant injuries such as upper extremity fractures or other ligamentous injuries * TFCC surgery in the affected wrist * Non-compliance with immobilization * Patients who complete hand therapy at an outside facility * Score of 4 or more on blood flow restriction screening questionnaire

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Grip StrengthFrom enrollment to 6 weeks after initiation of BRFGrip Strength as measured by a dynamometer in pounds.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Patient Reported Wrist Evaluation (PRWE)From enrollment to 6 weeks after initiation of BRFThe PRWE is a patient-reported outcome measure created to measure wrist pain and disability in activities of daily living. This scale is scored from 0-100, and lower scores indicate better function while higher scores indicate worse function.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Aug 15, 2026