Distal radius fractures: treatment options

Abstract

Distal radius fractures are one of the commonest injuries worldwide, second only to hip fractures with a substantial social and economic burden. Over the last years treatment of these fractures has passed from the inexpensive means of casting and percutaneous pinning to the use of anatomical locking plates and specific fragment plates.
Current classification systems fail to guide the management of these fractures in a consistent manner and although the parameters of acceptable reduction and the indications for surgical treatment remain clear for younger patients, elderly patients can tolerate small to moderate degrees of displacement and malunion without significant changes in their everyday functionality.
Improvement in the design of fixation materials and adequate training of orthopedic surgeons lead to lower complication rates and restoration of functionality with shorter recovery times, but to this day there is not enough scientific evidence to definitively advocate for one method over another despite the number of studies and some meta-analyses in recent years.