broken wrist: splint as good as a cast

Linked by coach Greg on the NEW Oakville Men’s Gymnastics blog:

The splint’s advantage is that it can be removed occasionally to wash the arm or let it breathe, study finds …

The study, published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at 92 children aged 5 to 12 who arrived in the hospital’s emergency room from April, 2007, and September, 2009, with broken wrists.

The fractures were a clear break of the bone, and the bone could be a little bit bent or displaced for the child to qualify for the study. Forty-three kids received a splint and the remaining 49 were put in a cast. …

click through to read the details – Globe and MailA splint just as good as cast for kid’s broken wrist: study

That’s for a clean break. If there are complications (i.e. growth plate) it might mean a full cast.

2 comments ↓

#1 sparky on 09.08.10 at 9:33 am

My daughter had a growth plate fracture last year and the orthopedic surgeon did not cast it but used a splint instead. It definately was better then a cast for her.

#2 JO on 09.08.10 at 7:00 pm

On the other hand I have seen doctors cast small breaks because the kid was sooo active that they didn’t trust them not to use that part of their body.

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