Anyone had surgery on a Colles' fracture?

I recently fractured my radius near the wrist (Colles' fracture). The doctor says I am borderline in need of surgery. I would like to hear outcomes from people who have broken this bone and chose to have surgery. I would also like to hear from people who broke this bone and have not had surgery. What are the pros and cons?

rickd thanks for the input. but i'd like to know more. was the loss of rotation due to surgery? Did this have any adverse effects on your climbing? what is a closed reduction?

I am trying to find out the downsides of 1. having surg or 2. not having surg.

This is the first time I've heard of a Colles fracture in 12 years. I had mine at age 10. I fractured both the radius and ulna near the wrist. It was also borderline in need of surgery. We elected to have it set by a specialist without surgery.

I retained full motion of my wrist, but it wasn't perfect. To this day, my forearm is slightly, but noticeably bent. Doesn't seem to affect performance, though.

Darren Snipes wrote:I recently fractured my radius near the wrist (Colles' fracture). The doctor says I am borderline in need of surgery. I would like to hear outcomes from people who have broken this bone and chose to have surgery. I would also like to hear from people who broke this bone and have not had surgery. What are the pros and cons?

I shattered my distal radius (either Colles or Smith fracture) in a cycling accident 5 or 6 years ago. One doc said surgery, the 2nd suggested the wait-and-see approach (not a very stable fracture, but well set by ER doc). To make a long story short, I opted for the wait-and-see approach. Came out of the cast with a 40 degree kink in my wrist, though the articulating surface healed nicely. Went in for surgery to re-break it, install plate and 8 screws and repair a tendon which had severed itself over one of the broken bone fragments. In my case, I might have saved myself some pain and agony had I opted for surgery up front. In the end, I lost very little range of motion and ended up with normal function and strength, but I took the long road. Except for a nice collection of scars and a slight dimple in one scar, it looks normal and alignment is good. Every case is different, though.

What happens in an unstable fracture is that as the muscles atrophy, and tendons tighten up from being immobilized, the hand is pulled backward (the cast gets loose and permits movement, too). In my case, that caused the end of the radius to pivot palmward, causing the 40 deg. bend at the main fracture line. Simple pinning (closed reduction - they don't have to cut you open) sometimes can be enough, but the surgeon never really knows until they get in the operating room and see how the bone bits respond. You could wake up having had more extensive surgery, an internal plate or an external fixator. The more surgery, typically the more scar tissue. However, sometimes you can start therapy sooner with a screwed or pinned fracture, which can speed recovery. If your doc thinks he/she has a high probability of stabilizing the fracture and preventing movement with just a few pins, I would probably go for it. Pins alone are pretty minimally invasive, and the two pins I had were removed in an office visit.

If you opt for surgery, I would strongly suggest seeing a hand specialist rather than a general orthopod, or at least getting a 2nd opinion from a specialist. Hands are intricate and complicated. Hand surgeons see these fractures all the time and probably have a better insight as to how yours is likely to repond than a general orthopod who sees fewer of these and a lot of other injuries. I had my surgery done by doc #3, a hand surgeon, who talked about restoring the original anatomy to the extent possible. I'm very happy with his work.

Good luck with your recovery!

Kathy