ABSTRACT
Introduction: Barton's fracture is fracture-dislocation ofradiocarpal joint with the intra-articular fracture involvingthe volar or dorsal lip. These injuries are inherently unstabledemanding open reduction and internal fixation. We presentour experience with buttress plate fixation for volar Barton’sfracture with Ellis T-plate. Aims: To evaluate the functionaloutcome and complications in volar Barton’s fracture treatedby open reduction and internal fixation with T plate.Material and methods: This case series study wasconducted between January 2012 and November 2012 atDepartment of Orthopaedics, Government Medical CollegeThiruvananthapuram. The patients in the age group 18 -75years who were treated by ORIF for volar Barton fractureswere included in the study. During follow up, subjective andobjective assessments were done and the patient’s functionalstatus was evaluated with modified clinical scoring system ofGreen and O’Brien. The 32 patients involved were followedup for eleven months. The descriptive data were analysedusing ‘SPSS’ and conclusions were made based on it.Results: Wrist functions as assessed by Green and O’Brienscore showed 84.4% patients with excellent to good results.Five patients had either fair or poor outcome. None of thesevariables were found to have any significant effect on the finaloutcome.Conclusions: Ellis T plate is a simple and cheap implantwhich provides effective volar distal buttressing in treatmentof volar Barton fractures. Our study shows encouragingresults with good functional results. Also, there is a relativelyshort learning curve and the implant is cost effective.