In order to initial determine the conditions of bone healing,
all patients were re-examined by knocking the 2, 3, 4 metacarpal
heads of affected hand after around four weeks. If patients felt
pain, then immobilization was continued and a reassessment was
done one week later. When patients felt no pain, the plaster cast
was removed, and then tenderness and abnormal movement was
examined by doctor. The fracture was judged as clinical healing
when the affected hand could raise 1 kg levelly for 1 minute in
functional test, and the fracture was not obvious according the
X-ray film14 (the fracture line was faint in X-ray film). The clinical
healing time of each patient was defined as the time from fracture
to clinical union. The clinical healing time was assessed by three
experienced doctors (blinded to the treatment method).