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14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT)

17.06. - 21.06.2019, Berlin

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Do post-operative radiographs change the management following internal fixation of distal radius fractures?

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  • presenting/speaker Stefanie Wieschollek - Brisbane Hand and Upper Limb Research Institute, Brisbane Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
  • Bradley Gilpin - Brisbane Hand and Upper Limb Research Institute, Brisbane Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
  • Jamie McKenzie - Brisbane Hand and Upper Limb Research Institute, Brisbane Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
  • Paul Hak - Brisbane Hand and Upper Limb Research Institute, Brisbane Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
  • Mark P. Robinson - Brisbane Hand and Upper Limb Research Institute, Brisbane Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
  • Greg Couzens - Brisbane Hand and Upper Limb Research Institute, Brisbane Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
  • Mark Ross - Brisbane Hand and Upper Limb Research Institute, Brisbane Private Hospital, Brisbane, Australia

International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy. 14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT). Berlin, 17.-21.06.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2020. DocIFSSH19-797

doi: 10.3205/19ifssh0531, urn:nbn:de:0183-19ifssh05312

Published: February 6, 2020

© 2020 Wieschollek et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objectives/Interrogation: The utility of obtaining routine post-operative radiographs following the internal fixation of distal radius fractures is poorly defined. The purpose of this study was to determine whether post-operative radiographs influence the current management of fractures of the distal radius following internal fixation.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all patients that underwent internal fixation of distal radius fractures over a five year period. We interrogated patient files to determine whether patients were returned to theatre on the basis of routine post-operative radiographs. A total of 543 procedures were performed with 1340 radiographs obtained on these patients over the ensuing six weeks.

Results and Conclusions: Of these patients only seven returned to theatre. All patients that returned to theatre were either symptomatic or had findings prompting revision that were also identifiable on intra-operative radiographs that had not been addressed intra-operatively.

The evidence did not support routine post-operative imaging following the internal fixation of distal radius fractures.