How long does it take to heal a wrist fracture

In addition to eating and sleeping, proper physical exercise is also very necessary for our body. Physical exercise can make our bones stronger, improve our physical fitness, and also help resist some bacterial infections. However, there is also a great risk of injury during physical exercise, such as ligament sprains, wrist fractures, etc. How long does it take to heal after a wrist fracture?

Wrist Fracture Symptoms and Treatment

The occurrence of wrist fractures causes a lot of inconvenience to the patient's life. Wrist fractures are common in daily life, and most of the injured are elderly people. Most of the patients fall with their palms landing on the ground. Bone fractures often occur 50cm proximal to the joint at the distal end of the radius, which is clinically called Colle's fracture.

The first and most obvious symptom of a wrist fracture is the location of the fracture, followed by the manifestation symptoms, including swelling, pain, bruising, cyanosis, redness, swelling, lumps, restricted movement, etc. Another symptom is that long-term untreated or unhealed symptoms leave sequelae, such as wrist stiffness and inability to move.

There are two types of treatment for wrist fractures: conservative treatment and surgical treatment.

Surgical treatment mainly involves open reduction and internal fixation with plates, but surgery often leaves some sequelae, such as obvious reflections at the bone fracture site on rainy days.

Conservative treatment mainly uses Chinese medicine plasters to dredge the tendons and meridians, remove blood stasis, and promote the formation and healing of callus. Conservative treatment can achieve joint function exercises.

Treatment is only one aspect, and rehabilitation exercises for patients are also essential. When the bone fracture is basically healed, you can start active wrist flexion and extension exercises and wrist flexion resistance exercises. Then, increase the intensity and difficulty of forearm and wrist exercises every 3-4 days. When training the range of motion of joints, avoid using force or violence to avoid causing new injuries. During the recovery period, patients should also add some applied hand activity training. Wrist fractures must not be ignored and should be treated promptly to avoid missing the best time for treatment and making the condition worse.

Early treatment should focus on promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, and promoting qi and dissipating qi. Therefore, the diet should be light, eat more vegetables, eggs, soy products, fruits, fish soup, lean meat, etc. Avoid spicy, hot, greasy, bone soup, fat chicken, stewed fish, etc.

Bone growth requires: collagen, calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins C and D, which are all bone-forming elements, so it is important to supplement these substances after a fracture, especially for the elderly.

Precautions

When the bone fracture is basically healed, the recovery period and rehabilitation training will begin. The elderly can start active wrist flexion and extension exercises, and wrist flexion resistance exercises. Then, increase the intensity and difficulty of forearm and wrist exercises every 3-4 days. When training the range of motion of joints, avoid using force or violence to avoid causing new injuries. During the recovery period, patients should also add some hand application activity training, such as building blocks, weaving, etc.

The joint traction method requires the use of some simple brackets to fix the proximal limb of the joint, and use sandbags or rice bags to apply gravity traction on the distal limb of the joint in the required direction. The traction weight is enough to cause a certain tension or slight pain in the joint, and the patient can tolerate it. The time is generally 10-20 minutes.

Conservative treatment can achieve joint function training, while surgical treatment mainly involves open reduction and internal fixation with parallel plates. However, surgery often leaves some sequelae, such as obvious reflection at the bone fracture site on rainy days.