ArticleThe archives of bone and joint surgery2022
Reliability of Routine Radiographs for Conservatively Treated Metacarpal Shaft and Neck Fractures.
Article in The archives of bone and joint surgery, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The Rate and Utility of Follow-Up Radiographs for Nonoperatively Treated Isolated Radial Head Fractures.Journal of hand surgery global online · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: To investigate the reliability of orthopedic hand surgeons to evaluate radiographic healing in initial and follow-up radiographs of the conservatively treated metacarpal shaft and neck fractures. The rationale for this study was to reduce the rate of unnecessary, routine radiographs when treating metacarpal fractures. Methods: Forty sets of digital x-rays, twenty at the initial visit and twenty at the 4-week follow-up, were randomly selected and reviewed. Three hand surgeons evaluated the x-rays for (1) fracture location, (2) radiograph timing, (3) healing status, (4) percentage healed, (5) angulation, and (6) confidence in healing status. Observers reviewed studies in random order and evaluated the same set of radiographs one month after the initial review. Intra- and interobserver agreements were analyzed using Fleiss' kappa (κ) for all parameters and all possible observer pairings. Results: Interobserver and intraobserver reliability was highest when evaluating fracture location and lowest when assessing the percentage healed. The interobserver reliability was fair for radiograph timing and healing status and fair-to-moderate for angulation. The intraobserver reliability was moderate for radiograph timing and healing status and moderate-to-substantial for angulation. Observers correctly differentiated initial vs. follow-up images 62% of the time and reported to feel somewhat certain in their evaluation of healing status. Conclusion: When evaluating initial and 4-week follow-up radiographs, hand surgeons were somewhat confident in their assessment of healing but had less than substantial intra- and interobserver reliability following radiographic evaluation. Due to their poor reproducibility, routine radiographs may be unnecessary when evaluating conservatively treated metacarpal fractures. Further studies and guidelines that identify clear indications for the use of routine imaging in metacarpal fracture care are warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.