Supervised exercise therapy program vs non-supervised exercise therapy program after distal radius fracture: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: It is an updated systematic review with meta-analysis that compared supervised exercise therapy (SET) vs non-supervised exercise therapy (NSET) programs for patients with distal radius fracture. PURPOSE: The purpose of this systematic review is to appraise the current literature to determine if SET program is more effective than a NSET program for pain relief, improvement of range of movement, function and grip strength, both in the short or medium term for patients following distal radius fractures. STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review. METHODS: The following electronic databases were searched: Medline/Pubmed, PEDro, Cinahl, Embase, CENTRAL, and Lilacs. PICOT strategy was used for trial selection. The searches were conducted on August 22, 2021, and May 26, 2022. Two researchers performed an independent search for papers from the references of the chosen trials. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) was used for assessing the quality of evidence. RESULTS: The search strategy identified 2786 potentially eligible studies and 15 studies met our inclusion criteria. The results did not show that the SET program was more effective than the NSET program for all outcomes, in both terms for patients after distal radius fractures. GRADE showed that all analyses presented very low-quality evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Even the results showing there was no difference between the two programs analyzed, the available evidence for randomized controlled trials was insufficient to support these results.