Risk Factors of Wrist Stiffness after Treatment for Distal Radius Fractures / 대한정형외과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate risk factors for wrist stiffness after treatment of distal radius fractures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 55 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with distal radius fracture at the current authors' institution and followed-up for at least 6 months were included in this retrospective study. Data on all factors related to wrist stiffness were considered. The degree of association for each of the factors was determined by calculation of the odds ratio (OR), with a 95% confidence interval. Logistic regression analyses were performed. p-value was set below 0.05. RESULTS: Among radiologic indexes reflecting the degrees of fracture reduction, only ulnar variance showed significant association with wrist stiffness of distal radius fracture (p<0.05). In univariate analysis, age (p=0.037; OR, 1.051) and diabetes mellitus (DM) (p=0.016; OR, 8.000) showed significant association with wrist stiffness. Various factors significant at the p-value less than 0.20 level in univariate analyses were included in the multivariate analyses. In multivariate analyses, only DM (p=0.034; OR, 6.588) showed significant association with wrist stiffness. CONCLUSION: Contraction of DM is critical to avoid wrist stiffness of distal radius fracture patients. In addition, ulnar variance was considered a significant factor of wrist stiffness in distal radius fracture patients, thus reduction of fracture could be done more in proximity to normal anatomy.