ArticleJournal of hand surgery global online2025
Urgent Versus Delayed Surgical Treatment of Open Distal Radius Fractures: A Multicenter Retrospective Study.
Article in Journal of hand surgery global online, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
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
Purpose: Controversy exists on the urgency of operative treatment for low energy open distal radius fractures. Two medical centers shifted practice and no longer take all open distal radius fractures emergently to the operating for debridement. The purpose of this study is to provide preliminary data to evaluate if this is associated with unacceptably high infection rates. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed for 55 open distal radius fractures in 54 patients at two level one trauma centers. Patients underwent irrigation and closed reduction in the emergency department followed by definitive closed treatment or operative treatment with surgical irrigation, debridement, and fixation, either within 24 hours or after discharge. The main outcome measure was infection, with secondary outcomes of complications or secondary procedures. Results: In this cohort, 4 of 55 patients experienced infections (7.2%.) There were no infections in low energy injuries. Twenty-four patients went to the operating room 2 or more days from presentation or were treated nonoperatively with only 1 postoperative infection (4.2%). All infections were in high energy mechanism injuries with at least one additional risk factor: smoking, polytrauma, or Gustilo Anderson type 2 injury. Conclusions: These data suggest that in patients with low energy injury mechanisms and type 1 injuries, delay in formal operative debridement is not associated with an elevated infection risk in this small case series. Future prospective studies with larger sample sizes are needed to definitively evaluate whether some open distal radius fracture patterns may not require emergent operative debridement. Type of study/level of evidence: Prognostic IV.
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.