Wrist Fractures: Distal Radius Fracture Repair With a Volar Plate Animation

Wrist Fractures: Distal Radius Fracture Repair With a Volar Plate Animation

This animation demonstrates a distal radius fracture repair with a volar plate and screws to treat a wrist fracture. Here, we see a right hand with the palm facing up. You can see that the end of the radius, the forearm bone on the thumb side of the wrist, has broken into several pieces.

First, an incision is made through the skin and soft tissue along the palm side of the wrist to access the end of the radius. The broken bone pieces are repositioned back together, and a metal volar plate is placed on top. This type of metal plate is specifically made to fit on the palm side, or volar side, of the radius bone.

Then an aiming guide is aligned over the plate and held in place with a temporary screw. This helps align the angle of the drill that will be used to place screws through the holes in the plate. A large screw is also placed through the large opening in the plate to hold the bottom of the plate in place. A small metal wire is placed through the tiny hole in the top of the aiming guide and plate to further hold everything in place.

Then, the drill is positioned through the hole of the aiming guide and metal plate to make a hole into the radius bone, and a screw is inserted. These steps are repeated to fill in the remaining holes in the plate with screws. The temporary screw and aiming guide are removed. More holes are drilled, and screws are placed to fill in the remaining holes in the metal plate.

The final alignment of the bone pieces and metal plate is checked with x-ray. The skin incision will be closed with sutures and the distal radius fracture repair is complete.