AIM: To study the influence of gripping exercise on the radius bone density of patients with Colles fracture by comparison of gripping exercise with traditional functional training methods. METHODS: Totally 43 patients with primary Colles fracture were treated with manual diaplasis and small splint immobilization. All the patients were randomly divided into control group (n = 20) and exercise group (n = 23). From the second day after fixation, the patients in the exercise group took the grip exerciser 3 times a day, and 1 to 2 minutes for each time, while patients in the control group only did some simple wrist activity. The small splints were dismantled after 4 weeks. Six weeks after fixation, the bone width (BW) of radius, bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) of fractured radiuses were measured with the HB-6012 two-dimensional single photon bone density machine. RESULTS: There was significant difference in BW of radius between the exercise group (2.31 +/- 6.14 cm) and control group (1.97 +/- 0.16 cm) (t = 2.548, p < 0.05), Very significant difference was found in BMC between the exercise group (0.874 +/- 0.150 g /cm) and control group (0.620 +/- 0.140 g/cm) (t = 2.987, p < 0.01). BMD in the exercise group (0.382 +/- 0.070 g/cm2) was very significantly different from that in the control group (0.312 +/- 0.020 g/cm2) (t = 3.243, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Gripping exercise can prevent the decrease of the radius bone density after Colles' fracture treated with small splint immobilization.

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