Studies on External Skeletal Fixation For Radius Fracture Treatment In Dogs

Among the long bones, radius and ulna (antebrachium) are predisposed forexternal trauma as they are the major weight bearing bones and have minimum amount ofsoft tissue covering. The highest incidences of fractures had been seen in radius and ulna(Thilagar and Balasubramanian, 1988) when compared to other long bone fractures.For fracture immobilization, the easier and simple procedure followed is externalcoaptation technique which has its applications limited to simple and stable fractures.Intramedullary pinning of radius is a method of stabilization of multiple radius or ulnarfracture, because of its low cost, less time consumption and it is simple. But it providesless stable fixation and it may result in pin migration and carpal joint ankylosis whichhinders limb movement during healing period. Bone plates used for internal fixation areeffective in countering all the forces and they are usually preferred when post-operativecomfort and early limb usage are desired. Major disadvantage with bone plating is that itrequires extensive exposure of fractured part and resurgery for removal of plates afterhealing.