Acute isolated volar distal radioulnar joint dislocation: first surgery or conservative?

Isolated distal radioulnar joint (DRUJ) dislocations are referred to as dorsal or volar of neglected isolated volar DRUJ dislocation which was detected at the second dislocations concerning the position of the ulnar head in relationship to the radius. In contrast to large joint dislocations such as a shoulder dislocation, the clinical picture may mimic a simple soft tissue injury and the dislocation may be missed. In this article, we aimed to present a case presentation to the emergency department. Our patient who had no complaint other than wrist pain was diagnosed with volar dislocation on lateral radiography and closed reduction was performed in the emergency department with sedation. There was no recurrence in the follow-up and we achieved a satisfactory result with a painless and unrestricted wrist joint at six months. DRUJ and the ligaments stabilize the joint work in anatomical coordination and play an important role in forearm rotation movement. Traumatic injuries to these structures range from isolated tears to severe fractured dislocations. Isolated DRUJ dislocations are rare. Initial treatment of this injury is closed reduction, post-reduction stability is important and fixation is required in case of instability. Although surgical treatment is performed in cases that cannot be closed reduced and in the presence of instability after reduction, it is possible to obtain successful results in acute cases with closed reduction performed with sedation in emergency departments. For this reason, a conservative approach should be tried before making a surgical decision in these injuries that require special attention in diagnosis.