Wrist working splints are highly effective in alleviating wrist pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a randomized controlled study has shown.
Wrist working splints are prescribed as an adjunct to drug treatment and allow movement of the finger and thumb joints, enabling the performance of daily activities. The current evidence for their use is conflicting, with some but not all studies finding that the splints improve pain, grip strength and dexterity.
To clarify this issue, Martine Veehof and colleagues at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, undertook a 4-week randomized trial in 33 RA patients with wrist arthritis.
The subjects were assigned to wrist splinting or to usual care. The splint group were provided with a commercially available, prefabricated wrist working splint at 10–20o of wrist extension alongside education and behavioral strategies to encourage splint use.
All patients completed the study; the splint group wore the splint for 86–100% of the study period.
After 4 weeks, mean pain scores on a visual analog scale had fallen by 32% in the splint group but increased by 17% in the control group, a highly significant difference (p=0.002).
Splinting was also associated with some nonsignificant benefits over usual care. These included a reduction in the number of activities that were painful to perform, an increase in grip strength, and an increase in functional ability.
Writing in the journal Arthritis Care and Research, Veehof and colleagues say that the most likely explanation for the treatment effect is that wrist working splints reduce wrist motion, providing rest, support, and stabilization of the wrist. This might reduce pain and improve function during use as well as reducing local inflammation.
They conclude: “The results of this randomized controlled study show that 4 weeks of splinting with a prefabricated wrist working splint has a large and significant effect on perceived wrist pain in RA patients who have wrist arthritis.”
My hand therapist said pretty much the same thing. I still use them because of the damage that I have to my hands..........
I started using my splints again after reading this article a few days ago and my wrists are far less painful than they were without splints. I wonder about the finding that it improves the shoulder as well, because the shoulder joint has to compensate for loss of movement in the wrist. Idont think this has much to do about splints but I wear RA gloves with the fingers cut out that helps alot like keeps my hands warm and keeps blood flowing and very light compression, I bought in on line it was around .00 there are also better ones for more money,,,,of course. I hope my Doc will start me on ORENCIA soon I've heard alot of positive things about it and so far not much has worked for me . Enbrel didnt, it caused more pain.