Orthopedic Surgery

Below are current clinical trials.

Filter this list of studies by location, status and more.

1. A Study of Performance of a New Investigational Prosthesis Design and Explore How Mimicking the Human Ankle May Enhance Maneuverability of Walking

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to see how you walk with an investigational new type of ankle-foot prosthesis that has been developed, which can allow motion in more than one direction.

2. Hamstring Strain in High School Athletes

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of the current study is, 1) Determine the effectiveness of injury prevention programs for prevention of hamstring muscle strains, 2) Identify how these programs impact athletes' flexibility, muscle stiffness, strength, and power, and 3) Determine the ability of a state-of-the-art imaging technology, shear wave elastography to predict future hamstring muscle strain injury.

3. Management of Hand and Upper Extremity Patients

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to obtain a baseline database of patient functioning seen in the hand clinic and to determine whether the interventions provided to hand surgery patients, be that non operative or operative, improves their function.

4. A Study of Upper Extremity Activity in the Everyday Living Environment of Individuals with Brachial Plexus Injuries Compared to Individuals without with Brachial Plexus Injuries

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to assess arm activity in the free living environment before and after treatment of a brachial plexus injury. The information collected in this study may give insight into the outcomes of treatment.

5. Direct Anterior vs. Anterolateral Approach for Hip Arthroplasty After Femoral Neck Fracture in the Senior Population

   Rochester, Minn.

   Displaced femoral neck fractures are one group of hip fracture patients that are commonly treated with cemented hemiarthroplasty (HA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA). In the elective hip arthroplasty population, the direct anterior approach (DAA) has shown to be effective in helping patients to quickly obtain high postoperative function. This approach has also been shown to be effective in arthroplasty for displaced femoral neck fractures in a few studies. However, the only studies that directly compare two approaches for hip arthroplasty for femoral neck fractures utilize the anterolateral approach (ALA) versus posterior approach (PA) or DAA versus PA. No studies of which we are aware directly compare the DAA to the ALA. The DAA and ALA are the two most popular approaches for bipolar hemiarthroplasty at our institution, so we are setting out to determine the differences between them.

6. Outcomes of Surgical Procedures to Restore Forearm Rotation

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to evaluate the outcomes of surgical procedures that will restore the patient’s rotation of the forearms.

7. A Study to Compare Bone Ultrasound to Xrays for the Evaluation of Forearm and Clavicle Fracture Healing

   Rochester, Minn.

   The purpose of this study is to compare the use of ultrasound to traditional xrays to evaluate fracture healing over time in patients with radius/ulna (arm) fractures.

8. Sex Disparities in Arthrogenic Muscle Inhibition Following ACL Injury

   Rochester, Minn.

   Incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures disproportionately affect female athletes at a rate 4-6 times greater than male counterparts. In addition, females have a reinjury rate 16 times that of healthy female controls and 4 times that of male ACL reconstruction (ACLR) counterparts. After ACL injury and throughout rehabilitation, a ubiquitous impairment that limits athlete progression to return to sport (RTS) is atrophy of the musculature surrounding the knee, termed arthrogenic muscle inhibition (AMI).The focus of the study is to develop an objective, reproducible, and reliable measure of neuromotor activation (directly correlated with AMI) and neuromuscular elicited muscle stiffness for both injury prevention and rehabilitation.

9. Regional and Seasonal Variations in the Incidence and Causative Organisms for Post-traumatic Wound infections and Osteomyelitis After Open Fractures

   Rochester, Minn.

   Preliminary indicates that there is a significant seasonal and regional variation in incidence and causative organisms for post traumatic wound infections after open fractures. This finding makes the current use of a generic antibiotic for prophylaxis suboptimal. In order to validate this original finding we need to conduct a large scale study to determine if the patterns of infection truly vary depending on the time of year and the region in which the fracture occurs, and if so to change the way prophylactic antibiotic use is administered.

10. Scoliosis Shared Decision Making

    Rochester, Minn.

    Analysis of video encounters between providers, patients, and families will be used to develop a shared decision making tool for patients deciding between surgery and observation for scoliosis treatment.