Management of Pediatric Distal Radius Fractures : Conservative Treatment Versus Surgical Reduction

Overview

To compare functional and radiological assessment between two groups of children with displaced distal radius fractures : those who will receive surgical reduction and those who will not.

Distal radius fractures are the most frequent fractures seen in pediatric population accounting for about 20-30% of all fractures in children , for the non-displaced pediatric distal radius fractures , it is agreed widely to be just managed by an immobilization cast in the emergency department . However when it comes to the displaced fractures , Different centers have different options of management , mostly including either the surgical anatomical reduction under general anesthesia then casting with or without using other fixation method which is mostly k-wires , or the other option includes only casting in the emergency department without trial of reduction or just a trial of realignment under sedating agent , this second option depends on the unique phenomenon of remodeling in the pediatric fractures , as Unlike adults, in growing children, remodeling can restore the alignment of the displaced fractures to a certain extent, making anatomical reduction less essential , specially when it comes to distal radius as The distal radial and ulnar physes are responsible for about 80% of forearm length and for 40% of upper limb length that making their remodeling potential can approach upto 100% . depending on that the question was that if the fracture will be fully remodeled with no functional or range of motion disturbance on the conservative option so what the essentiality of the surgical option can be . along with exposing the child to the dangers of general anesthesia , the minor complications that can occur with k wires (as neuropraxia , pin tract infection or migration of the k wire) , emotional and financial load . in a cost analysis for different options of treatment in displaced pediatric distal radius fractures , the cost of surgical option exceeds the conservative one by multiple times . According to that a lot of the current literature have suggested to consider conservative treatment of pediatric displaced distal radius fractures to be the gold standard and fundamental option of treatment . In this study the investigators question the effectiveness of conservative treatment to displaced pediatric distal radius fractures (casting in the emergency department) in comparison to the surgical anatomical reduction in matters of functional and radiological parameters .

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Central Contacts