Health
Falls: watch out for broken wrist
First reflex when you fall: catch up with your wrist. Unfortunately, this joints cannot suddenly support the entire weight of the body. The fracture is often inevitable. Is the operation necessary? How does the surgeon manage to repair the damage?
With 130,000 cases per year, the wrist fracture is one of the most frequent fractures. A misstep, a stampede ... and that's the fall. We try to make up for it but poor reception on the hand then causes sharp pain in the wrist, it is swollen and sometimes even deformed.
In the elderly, a broken wrist can be an important warning sign of osteoporosis. Most often, it is a fracture of the lower end of the radius. More than half require surgery.
The wrist is a sensitive area. The wrist is the joint that brings together the distal end of the bones of the forearm: the radius and the ulna, with the first row of the bones of the hand called the carpal bones.
Among them, we find the scaphoid, the lunatum, the triquetrous, the pisiform…
The assembly allows the movements of flexion, extension and lateral movements of rotation. In case of poor reception on the hand, the wrist joint undergoes the entire weight of the body. The bones of the forearm are crushed on the first row of the bones of the hand and it is the Bones fracture.
Two types of fractures
Plastered wrist. Eight times out of ten, the fracture is located at the level of the radius. When the fracture is simple and there is no bone displacement, the treatment is orthopedic. It is enough to reduce the fracture that is to say to put the bones end to end and to maintain them using a plaster, until their complete consolidation.
Wrist operated. But when the bones fracture in different places, we speak of a comminuted fracture. This means that several fragments of bone are likely to move, the operation is then inevitable. It is an intervention that is done under regional anesthesia, the patient remains awake during the entire operation.
How do you operate a fractured wrist? Response in pictures, in the operating room.
Osteoporosis: watch out for fractures
Osteoporosis alert. The wrist fracture can also occur when the bones become more fragile with age. Bone, contrary to appearances, is not an inert material but a living tissue in perpetual renewal. When this balance is broken the bone begins to demineralize, it loses calcium, it becomes less dense. In the most severe cases, the bone becomes porous, hence the name osteoporosis. The bone appears paler and more transparent on a radio.
Even if everyone starts losing bone at the age of 30, this disease mainly affects women and even one in three women after menopause. The bones are less and less resistant to shocks and are at risk of undergoing so-called spontaneous fractures. A broken wrist can be a warning sign for osteoporosis. In nine out of ten cases, wrist fractures in women after menopause are thought to be due to undiagnosed osteoporosis.
Wrist fracture: after surgery, rehabilitation
The wrist is often on the front line in the event of a fall. A bad reception on the hand and it is the fracture. After the installation of a plaster or after an operation, rehabilitation is not compulsory but it is often very useful to recover the flexibility, mobility and strength of his wrist.
Managing poorly consolidated fractures
When a wrist fracture has been badly consolidated, it is sometimes necessary to re-operate to restore functionality to the joint. This is all the more so since the deformation of the bones can press on the nerves and tendons, at the risk of causing significant paralysis and pain.
The consolidation of a fracture in the wrong position is called a vicious call. The deformation of the bone is often visible to the naked eye because the limb is deformed and the movements can be modified by this complication of the fracture. The surgical intervention under loco-regional anesthesia (only the arm is asleep) aims to restore the proper functioning of the wrist.
To restore the bones of balance, it is necessary to go back at the time of the fracture before consolidation. The surgeon must realign the bones of the joint using pins. He then checks with x-rays that everything is in place. And once the bone is repositioned, the surgeon places a titanium plate to consolidate the fracture.