Complex Fracture: Forearm/Wrist

Presenting

This 44 year old woman fell and fractured her forearm above a plate that had been implanted elswhere 5 years before for a fracture of the distal forearm. She said that the first fracture had taken a long time to heal and had several complications. As can be seen, the treatment of that original fracture had involved making a “single bone” forearm. The forearm has two bones, and the remnants of half of one of those bones can be seen in the left side of this image. At the time of her fracture, Dr. Brinker was also treating her for a femoral nonunion; this patient had a long history of troubles with fracture healing.