Vol. 8, Issue 2 (2022)

Methodology: A prospective comparative study of 30 patients with an average follow up of 10 months postoperatively done between October 2020 to September 2021 of closed unstable distal radius fracture.

Results: Majority of the cases were type III frykman (n=8, 26%), intra-articular (n=19, 63.3%) fractures of distal end of non-dominant (n=16, 53%) radius seen in the males (n=23, 76%) of younger age group (average 41 yr) with road traffic accidents (n=20, 66%) being the most common. Complications were seen in 26.6% cases of external fixation & 20% cases of volar plating. External fixator group excellent to good result seen in 80% patients (n=12) and fair to poor in 20% patients. The volar plate group has an excellent result seen in 86.66% of patients (n=13) and fair to poor in 13.33% of patients.

Conclusion: Volar plating group has advantage of better anatomical reduction, better radiological parameters, early joint motion & disadvantage of more intraoperative time, extra hospital stay, more expendature, surgical scar, re-surgery for implant removal with equal range of movements, complication rates and Gartland & werley score compare to external fixation.