Abstract
Malunion is the most common complication following conservative treatment. There is a general agreement that there is a close relationship between anatomy and function. Patients with malunited fractures of the distal radius often complain of weakness, pain and reduced motion of the wrist and forearm. Even after anatomical correction of a malunited fracture, function is not restored fully in all patients. Therefore, every effort should be made to prevent malunion in the primary treatment of distal fractures of the radius. It appears to be more common to see loss of reduction in patients suffering from high-energy injuries and in patients suffering from osteoporosis. With that in mind, the type of injury should be taken into account when trying to predict instability. The most important factors to predict loss of reduction and malunion is old age, any type of fracture comminution, high-energy injuries, positive ulnar variance (shortening of the radius) and dorsal angulation of the distal fragment
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Krukhaug, Y. (2014). How to Assess Fracture Instability. In: Hove, L., Lindau, T., Hølmer, P. (eds) Distal Radius Fractures. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54604-4_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54604-4_11
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