Therapy for broken wrist

A wrist can be diagnosed as broken when at least one of thebones within it is broken or has a crack. Based on the frequency of the causes,the one at the top of the list is definitely a fall that happens when people tryto catch themselves and practically land hard on the hand that they stretchedout. This is particularly common in sports such as American football, skiing,soccer and similar. However, broken wrist can easily happen to people whosuffer from osteoporosis, for example, since due to the presence of thiscondition, their bones are thinner and thus, a lot more fragile.

Whichever the cause, this kind of an injury is definitelynot the one that should be ignored, even though the pain makes something like thatreally difficult. However, even if the person is not sure that the wrist is actuallybroken, it is better to go to the doctor as soon as possible, than to wait. Waitingin such situations would be definitely loss of time, which might even leave somepermanent consequences. If the broken wrist is not treated soon enough, thereis a chance that the bone will not heal properly, and if that happens, the personwill feel stiffness for the rest of the life, while their range of motion mightalso be limited. Due to this, even some simple activities such as buttoning ashirt, for example, will be either difficult or impossible to perform.

What does the therapy for broken wrist usually consist of?

The person with the broken wrist should be ready for theprocedure known as fracture reduction, because usually the ends of the broken boneneed to be repositioned and realigned, which the doctor does manually in themajority of cases, while severe cases might require surgery for this to be done.It is painful, but it does not last long, and if necessary, the person can geta pain reliever or muscle relaxant. After this, the wrist needs to be immobilizedbecause the bone in question should not be moved in order to heal properly. Thisis why a splint or cast is used and how long it will have to be worn depends onthe case, although sometimes even several months have to pass before the wristis completely healed. When the doctor removes the splint or cast, the next stepis physical therapy, which is focused on two things – reduction of stiffnessand making the wrist and the hand able to move as before the injury.