OBJECTIVETo explore the clinical relative factors on the therapeutic effect of wrist joint function in patients with type-C fractures of distal radius treated with internal fixation.

METHODSRetrospectively collect consecutive patients of type-C fractures of distal radius treated surgically with open reduction and internal fixation admitted from January 2001 to October 2007. Making Gartland and Werley Score of wrist joint function as the primary outcome variable, the following were assessed: the postoperative efficacy at the follow-up, and use non-conditional Logistic regression to analysis the correlation of wrist joint function with patients' age, gender, time from injury to operation, classifications of type-C fracture, methods of internal fixation and other clinical factors.

RESULTSIn this study, 56 patients met the inclusion were collected. The follow-up time was 3.1 to 29.2 months (mean follow-up 6.3 months). The result of Gartland and Werley Score: 24 patients were excellent, good 26, fair 3, and poor 3; the excellent and good rate was 89.29%. Monovariant and multivariant Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that postoperative efficacy was significantly associated with elder age, time from injury to operation, methods of internal fixation:age (OR = 4.64; 95%CI: 1.48 - 14.54; P = 0.009), time from injury to operation (OR = 9.00; 95%CI: 1.72 - 46.99; P = 0.009), methods of internal fixation (OR = 3.33; 95%CI: 1.10 - 10.12; P = 0.034).

CONCLUSIONSElder age (>or= 65 years) and delay of surgery (>or= 13 d) are the influential factors of postoperative functional outcome of distal radius fractures. For the treatment of intra-articular type-C fractures of distal radius, locking compression plate is more effective than T-type plate.