Read more

October 17, 2019
2 min read
Save

Omission of routine radiography for distal radius fractures did not affect outcomes

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Patients with distal radial fractures who did not undergo routine radiography after 2 weeks of follow-up had similar patient-reported outcomes and risk of complications compared with patients who underwent usual care, according to published results.

Perspective from David Ring, MD, PhD

Researchers randomly assigned 326 patients with a distal radial fractures to a regimen of either routine radiographs (usual care; n=166) or without routine radiographs (reduced imaging; n=160) at 6 and 12 weeks of follow-up. Researchers assessed outcomes of DASH score, patient-rated wrist/hand evaluation score, health-related quality of life, pain and complications at baseline and after 6 weeks, 3 and 6 months, and 1 year of follow-up.

Results showed the usual care group and reduced imaging group had comparable DASH scores at all time points, as well as overall, with an adjusted regression coefficient of 1.5 for the DASH scores. Researchers also found no differences among patient-rated wrist/hand evaluation scores, EuroQol-5 scores for quality of life and VAS scores for pain at rest or pain when moving between the two groups. Patients in the reduced imaging group had a similar complication rate to patients in the usual care group, according to results. Researchers noted patients in the reduced imaging group underwent fewer radiographs compared with patients in the usual care group.

“The main difference was found in the number of radiographs obtained to detect hard callus formation, which was less frequently confirmed radiographically in the reduced-imaging group, without a negative effect on functional outcome,” the authors wrote. “This provides a cost-saving opportunity for the health care system and a small dose reduction in ionizing radiation.” – by Casey Tingle

Disclosures: van Gerven reports he received grants from ZonMw, The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Developing. Please see the study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.