Colles Fracture Treatment, Causes and Risk Factors – A broken wrist case can be caused by many things, but is often referred to as the Colles fracture. This type of injury feels very painful. In fact, you may not be able to hold or gripping something while experiencing a Colles fracture type.
What is a Colles fracture?
Colles fractures have many other names. Colles fractures are often referred to as distal radius fractures or transversal wrist fractures.
The Colles fracture is a fractured or broken condition of the distal radius bone. The radius bone is the largest bone in the arm, it is in relation to your thumb. Meanwhile, the vertebrae of the radius located near the wrist joint are called distal.
On the basis of the Colles fracture, glimpses seem similar to Smith’s fractures. The difference is that the Colles fracture causes the radius bones to stand out towards the rear (dorsal) of the normal position. As a result, the back of your hand will look to raise.
The Colles fractures were first discovered by Abraham Colles, an Irish surgeon and anatomist, in 1814. This type of injury is more common in parents whose bone condition has been fragile and children whose bones are still not strong.
Read also: What Is An Avulsion Fracture: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment.
Causes and risk factors
Colles fractures are very common. In the United States, the Colles fracture is a term used for all the distal radius fractures. The Smith fracture, the Chauffer fracture, and the Barton fracture are distal radial fracture types as well.
Colles fractures usually occur when a person falls into an outstretched arm. It can also happen as a result of trauma, such as occurs in a car, bicycle, or ski accident.
The age of a person may affect whether the Colles fracture occurs or not.
For example, high intensity breaks caused by trauma are more common at 18 to 25 years of age than older people. On the other hand, breaks caused by stumbling or falling occur in older people, because their bones can be more fragile.
These types of breaks also often occur in older women who have osteoporosis. This condition weakens the bones and often occurs at a later date. Someone might not even know they have weak bones until a break occurs.
Cases of colles fractures in people over 60 tend to occur when they fall from standing position.
Those who are at risk of fractures, such as older people with osteoporosis or those who have problems with their balance, can wear wrist protectors. However, while this can limit the colles fractures, it will not prevent them all.
Read also: Stress fracture in foot: The types, causes, symptoms, how to treat it, and when to see a doctor.
Colles Fracture Treatment
Determining proper colles fracture treatment depends on a number of factors. In particular, your surgeon will seek the alignment and stability of the fracture. Unaligned or unstable bones are more likely to require surgical stabilization.
Fracture reduction
Often Colles fractures can be reset without performing surgery; This is a procedure called fracture reduction. During this procedure, local or general anesthesia is given to the patient, and the doctor will re-position the bones and then apply a splint to hold the bones in the appropriate position.
Surgery
Depending on the level of forearm bone movement (radius) and wrist angulation disorder, Colles fractures may require surgery for treatment. When more significant injuries will likely require surgical treatment.
During the surgical procedure, your surgeon can use pins, plates, and/or screws to secure the bones in a better position. While the surgery does not make the break heal faster, it does not hold the bones in the right position as they heal. Furthermore, because the bones are securely held with metal implants, often the patient does not require cast immobilization.
Distal Radius Fracture Management
The management aims for distal radius fracture to restore normal motion function as much as possible. However, the evaluation needs to be done in order to determine whether the condition of an emergence is a distal neurovascular disorder. If there is such condition need to be reduced immediately.
Reduction is done so that the bone’s position back, according to anatomical position. The selection of reduction methods pays attention to the fracture type (whether it is articular involvement, bone alignment), the patient’s functional level and the risk and complications of each action. The reduction options in the case of the distal radius fracture are as follows:
- Closed reduction and immobilization with Gips.
- Percutaneous Pinning
- Open reduction and Internal fixation (ORIF) with Volar Locking Plate (VLP).
- Hemiarthroplasty.
- Rehabilitation.
Read also: 8 Hip Fracture Symptoms, Causes, and Risk Factors.
Thank you very much for reading Colles Fracture Treatment, Causes and Risk Factors, hopefully useful.
