Management of DRFs has always been an area of intense research and innovation. It has changed more rapidly in the past decade than in any previous two decades. Whereas percutaneous pinning and external fixation remain the mainstays of treatment throughout much of the world, with strong and somewhat idiosyncratic national trends attributable to the prominence of individual surgeons in those countries, volar fixed-angle plating has become popular and has dramatically shifted the landscape in several ways.
For many surgeons, the volar approach, using fixed-angle devices, is the main treatment option for dorsally unstable DRFs. Orbay has popularized this treatment and broadened its applicability to highly comminuted intra-articular fractures with the extended FCR approach, pronating the radial shaft out of the way and looking directly at the undersurface of the articular bone.
The low rate of complications and postoperative pain, the quality of the results, and the rapid return to activities has, for some surgeons, shifted the balance of risks to benefits in such a manner that they are offering patients the option of surgery versus a cast for stable undisplaced or stable reducible fractures.[16, 17] (See Radius Fracture with Immediate Return to Work.)
The complication rate for volar fixed-angle plates has not yet been clearly defined. Most cases of tendon injury or rupture seem to be due to failure to follow proper technique. One aspect of technique is to avoid any past-pointing of distal screws and, preferably, to place their tips 2-4 mm short of the dorsal cortex. A second important technique is to use a plate that does not extend distally as far as the volar wrist capsule and to completely and securely cover it with the PQ.
Arthroscopy continues to be a controversial adjunct to the management of intra-articular fractures. Whereas the rate of unrecognized scapholunate, lunotriquetral, and triangular fibrocartilage tears in DRF has been shown to be greater than 60%, the role of arthroscopy continues to be controversial because of a lack of any outcome studies that have demonstrated improved results.