Management of Comminuited Intra/Juxta Articular Fracture of Distal Radius Using Bridging External Fixator

Abstract

Background: Distal radius fractures are the third most common osteoporotic fractures and are frequently treated in emergency department. They have a trimodal peak of occurrence and there has been a significant increase in incidence of involvement in elderly females and young males. Management of these fractures comes with lots of treatment options and challenges to provide good functional outcome. This prospective study was done for the management of communited intra/juxta articular fractures of distal end radius using a bridging external fixator on 25 patients. The principle of ligamentotaxis was used for alignment of fracture fragments and wrist spanning external fixator was used to maintain the fracture reduction.Methods:25 patients of either sex with age group 16 to 80 years were taken from the orthopedic department. After proper primary care, cases were classified using Fernandez classification, and posted for surgery as soon as investigations and fitness were taken.Results:Patients involved in the study were in range of 16 to 78 years with 16 patients having dominant side with road traffic accident as leading cause.Radiological union was seen at an average of 7.3 weeks, 4 patients had superficial pin tract infection, 3 patients had stiffnes and a single case had malunion. Conclusions:Modified clinical scoring system of Green and O’Brien was used to evaluate the overall functional results which showed excellent to good results in 84% of cases. Hence, properly planned and executed bridging external fixator is an easy, cost-effective and reliable treatment modality through the “Principle of Ligamentotaxis”.