Edinburgh Fracture Awareness Score for Trauma (eFAST)

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Edinburgh Fracture Awareness Score for Trauma (eFAST)

  • IRAS ID

    320021

  • Contact name

    Andrew D Duckworth

  • Contact email

    andrew.duckworth@ed.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Edinburgh

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    N/A, N/A

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are questionnaires used to assess how orthopaedic conditions and treatments effect a patients’ function and quality of life. This is challenging in orthopaedic trauma patients as what patients consider normal function following injury is subjective. The current PROMs used to assess broken wrists (distal radius fractures) are reported to have ceiling effects, meaning a high number of patients score the maximum score and therefore it becomes difficult to measure true change in these patients. In joint replacement patients, The Forgotten Joint Score (FJS-12) is used to assess a patient’s ability to forget their artificial joint in everyday life using the idea of ‘Joint awareness’. The FJS-12 has a low ceiling effect and good ability to differentiate between a good and excellent outcomes. As far as the authors are aware, there is no equivalent PROM available to assess joint awareness in trauma patients.

    This study will recruit patients from routine outpatient clinics at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at 6 weeks following their broken wrist. After receiving further information and giving consent, patients will be asked to complete two questionnaires at the point of recruitment and a further series of questionnaires 6 weeks later via post. Following this their involvement in the study is complete. Participation in the trial will not influence the treatment of the patient’s broken wrist and will not involve any extra visits to clinic. There will be no direct benefits to the participants, however the findings from this study may improve future care.

    The aim of this study is to develop a new PROM, that is responsive with minimal ceiling effects that can be used to assess outcomes in patients sustaining a fracture (broken bone) of the upper limb modelled on distal radial fracture patients (broken wrist).

  • REC name

    East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    22/EE/0257

  • Date of REC Opinion

    19 Oct 2022

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion