Risk Factors of Wrist Stiffness after Treatment for Distal Radius Fractures

Dong Yeong Lee; Sun Chul Hwang; Dae Cheol Nam; Jin Hoon Jeong; Young Lac Choi; Jin Sung Park

doi:10.4055/jkoa.2015.50.4.299

Journal List > J Korean Orthop Assoc > v.50(4) > 1013383

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Lee, Hwang, Nam, Jeong, Choi, and Park: Risk Factors of Wrist Stiffness after Treatment for Distal Radius Fractures

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Orthopaedic Association 2015; 50(4): 299-306.

Published online: 24 August 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4055/jkoa.2015.50.4.299

Risk Factors of Wrist Stiffness after Treatment for Distal Radius Fractures

Dong Yeong Lee, M.D., Sun Chul Hwang, M.D., Dae Cheol Nam, M.D., Jin Hoon Jeong, M.D., Young Lac Choi, M.D., Jin Sung Park, M.D.

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Korea.

Correspondence to: Jin Sung Park, M.D. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, 15 Jinju-daero 816beon-gil, Jinju 52727, Korea. TEL: +82-55-750-8858, FAX: +82-55-754-0477, jsparkler@naver.com

Received 27 December 2014 Revised 31 January 2015 Accepted 28 April 2015

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to evaluate risk factors for wrist stiffness after treatment of distal radius fractures.

Materials and Methods

A total of 55 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with distal radius fracture at the current authors' institution and followed-up for at least 6 months were included in this retrospective study. Data on all factors related to wrist stiffness were considered. The degree of association for each of the factors was determined by calculation of the odds ratio (OR), with a 95% confidence interval. Logistic regression analyses were performed. p-value was set below 0.05.

Results

Among radiologic indexes reflecting the degrees of fracture reduction, only ulnar variance showed significant association with wrist stiffness of distal radius fracture (p<0.05). In univariate analysis, age (p=0.037; OR, 1.051) and diabetes mellitus (DM) (p=0.016; OR, 8.000) showed significant association with wrist stiffness. Various factors significant at the p-value less than 0.20 level in univariate analyses were included in the multivariate analyses. In multivariate analyses, only DM (p=0.034; OR, 6.588) showed significant association with wrist stiffness.

Conclusion

Contraction of DM is critical to avoid wrist stiffness of distal radius fracture patients. In addition, ulnar variance was considered a significant factor of wrist stiffness in distal radius fracture patients, thus reduction of fracture could be done more in proximity to normal anatomy.

Keywords: radius fractures, internal fixation, stiffness, risk factors

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Distribution of Fractures according to AO Classification (n=55)

Table 2

Association of Each Factor with Wrist Stiffness

Table 3

Radiographic Outcomes of Distal Radius Fractures

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation.

Table 4

Range of Motion of Wrist after Treatment at 6 Months

Values are presented as mean±standard deviation.

Table 5

Statistical Outcomes of the Current Study

CI, confidence interval; BMI, body mass index; DM, diabetes mellitus.

Notes

^{CONFLICTS OF INTEREST} The authors have nothing to disclose.

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