Distal Radius Fracture

Symptoms of a distal radius fracture usually include one or more of the following:

• Wrist pain and tenderness to touch
• Wrist swelling (sometimes entire hand)
• Wrist bruising (sometimes involving the hand and extending up the arm)
• Wrist pain with movement
• Wrist deformity

Most cause of distal radius fracture involve trauma to the wrist:

• Fall onto an outstretched wrist (most common)
• Blunt force trauma (vehicle accident, direct blow to the wrist, work injury)
• Osteoporosis / osteopenia
• Fragile bones are more prone to fracture even from minor injuries

Often fractures are obvious on physical examination, but severe sprains and contusions can also look and feel very much like a wrist fracture. X-rays or CT scans usually offer definitive diagnoses for wrist fractures.

If you think you may have a wrist fracture, seek emergency care right away if you notice numbness or tingling in your hand, severe or tight swelling, obvious deformity of the wrist, or any open wounds near the injury, which could indicate an open (compound) fracture.

Nonoperative treatment

Splinting and casting are the mainstays of nonoperative treatment of distal radius fractures that are stable and not badly displaced (out of alignment). Sometimes, we will need to set the fracture straight before splinting. Cast treatment usually lasts 4-6 weeks.

Operative treatment

Distal radius fractures require surgery to repair when the fracture pieces are unstable (won’t stay in place) or involve the wrist joint surface. We perform a regional block to numb the arm and then make a small incision at the wrist to restore the alignment of the distal radius and hold the pieces in place with a metal plate and screws.

X-ray of a wrist with plating to repair a distal radius fracture