Distal Radius Interventions for Fracture Treatment (DRIFT) trial: study protocol for a multicentre randomised clinical trial of completely translated distal radius fractures at paediatric hospitals in North America.
Date
2025-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Citation Stats
Attention Stats
Abstract
Introduction
Distal radius fractures are the most common fractures seen in the emergency department in children in the USA. However, no established or standardised guidelines exist for the optimal management of completely displaced fractures in younger children. The proposed multicentre randomised trial will compare functional outcomes between children treated with fracture reduction under sedation versus children treated with simple immobilisation.Methods and analysis
Participants aged 4-10 years presenting to the emergency department with 100% dorsally translated metaphyseal fractures of the radius less than 5 cm from the distal radial physis will be recruited for the study. Those patients with open fractures, other ipsilateral arm fractures (excluding ulna), pathologic fractures, bone diseases, or neuromuscular or metabolic conditions will be excluded. Participants who agree to enrol in the trial will be randomly assigned via a minimal sufficient balance algorithm to either sedated reduction or in situ immobilisation. A sample size of 167 participants per arm will provide at least 90% power to detect a difference in the primary outcome of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Upper Extremity computer adaptive test scores of 4 points at 1 year from treatment. Primary analyses will employ a linear mixed model to estimate the treatment effect at 1 year. Secondary outcomes include additional measures of perceived pain, complications, radiographic angulation, satisfaction and additional procedures (revisions, refractures, reductions and reoperations).Ethics and dissemination
Ethical approval was obtained from the following local Institutional Review Boards: Advarra, serving as the single Institutional Review Board, approved the study (Pro00062090) in April 2022. The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto, ON, Canada) did not rely on Advarra and received separate approval from their local Research Ethics Board (REB; REB number: 1000079992) on 19 July 2023. Results will be disseminated through publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at international conference meetings.Trial registration number
NCT05131685.Type
Department
Description
Provenance
Subjects
Citation
Permalink
Published Version (Please cite this version)
Publication Info
Balmert Bonner, Lauren, Joseph Janicki, Andrew Georgiadis, Walter Truong, Dorothy Harris Beauvais, Mohan Belthur, Erika L Daley, Jeanne Franzone, et al. (2025). Distal Radius Interventions for Fracture Treatment (DRIFT) trial: study protocol for a multicentre randomised clinical trial of completely translated distal radius fractures at paediatric hospitals in North America. BMJ open, 15(10). p. e088273. 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088273 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/33955.
This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
Scholars@Duke
Frank Wesley Rockhold
Frank is a full time Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and Faculty Director for Biostatistics at Duke University Medical Center, Affiliate Professor of Biostatistics at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Strategic Consultant at Hunter Rockhold, Inc. His 40+-year career includes senior research positions at Lilly, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline, where he retired as Chief Safety Officer and Senior Vice President of Global Clinical Safety and Pharmacovigilance. He has held faculty appointments at six different universities. Dr. Rockhold served for 9 years on the board of directors of the non-profit CDISC, most recently as Chairman, and is past president of the Society for Clinical Trials and a past member of the PCORI Clinical Trials Advisory Panel. He is currently Chair of the Board of the Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation and a technical advisor to EMA.
Dr. Rockhold has diverse research interests and consulting experience in industry and academia including clinical trials design, data monitoring, benefit/risk, safety and pharmacovigilance and has been a leader in the scientific community in promoting data disclosure and transparency in clinical research. Frank is widely published in major scientific journals across a wide variety of research topics.
Frank holds a BA in Statistics from The University of Connecticut, an ScM in Biostatistics from The Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD in Biostatistics from the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University. Frank is an Elected Fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the Society for Clinical Trials, a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, an Accredited Professional Statistician, PStat®, and a Chartered Statistician, CStat.
Unless otherwise indicated, scholarly articles published by Duke faculty members are made available here with a CC-BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial) license, as enabled by the Duke Open Access Policy. If you wish to use the materials in ways not already permitted under CC-BY-NC, please consult the copyright owner. Other materials are made available here through the author’s grant of a non-exclusive license to make their work openly accessible.