The effect of early versus delayed ankle fracture fixation on muscle
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The application and clinical validation of novel approaches to quantify the effect of early versus delayed ankle fracture fixation on muscle mass and metabolic health status
IRAS ID
235196
Contact name
Ben Ollivere
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Nottingham
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
00, 00
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 1 days
Research summary
Ankle fractures are a common injury in the United Kingdom. Current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend that patients with operable ankle fractures should have early surgery (within 24 hours of injury) if possible. Despite this, often patients have an operation outside of this window after injury, and undergo non-weightbearing bed rest during this time. The usual postoperative regime for patients with operatively treated ankle fractures is to immobilise the ankle in a cast until the bone is healed. This results in muscle wasting of the calf and ankle joint stiffness, which may be worsened by a period of bed rest before surgery. It is currently unknown if delayed surgery causes a more severe decline in muscle mass, architecture and insulin resistance compared with early surgery, which is likely to impact on rehabilitation. Furthermore, methods to dynamically measure changes in muscle mass and muscle turnover are laborious and invasive. This study will apply novel approaches to measure changes in muscle mass and muscle changes in patients having surgery for ankle fracture.
This research is important to patients sustaining an ankle fracture requiring surgery as it may lead to further evidence to improve outcomes and insight into what controls muscle wasting after ankle fracture. Patients between the age of 18 -60 undergoing surgery for ankle fracture will be recruited at the Queen’s Medical Centre Nottingham. They will undergo physiological measures including muscle mass measurement using ultrasound, blood and calf muscle samples and a glucose tolerance test. Healthy matched controls will also be recruited who will undergo lower limb casting to compare with the effect of immobilisation alone. The study will be conducted at Nottingham University Hospitals and The University of Nottingham and participants will be enrolled in the study until the day after their two week outpatient appointment.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EM/0404
Date of REC Opinion
28 Feb 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion