Treatment of a Wrist Buckle Fracture and Discharge Information

Your child has sustained an injury of the wrist bone which your doctor has diagnosed as a buckle fracture.

What is a buckle fracture?

A buckle fracture is a type of break to the bone, where the bone has been squashed. Children’s bones are softer than adult bones and are more likely to squash rather than break after an impact. This can result in a bulge in the bone rather than a complete break.

This injury is treated like a sprain and will not cause any longterm problems.

Treatment

Buckle fractures heal so well by themselves that you do not need any special treatment.

A large scientific study that took place throughout the UK, called the FORCE study, investigated how best to treat these injuries. This study showed that children who were offered a bandage (which not all of them chose to wear) healed well and were equally as comfortable as those who were treated in a hard splint or cast.

Most children start to use their wrist and hand comfortably again after a couple of weeks. They should be allowed to use the hand as much as they want, but shouldn’t do anything that causes them pain or discomfort. If the child wears anything on their wrist (i.e. a bandage), then this should be removed whenever the wrist becomes more comfortable – and certainly by 3 weeks. When moving the wrist in the next few weeks they may complain of mild stiffness and aching. This is normal and should settle down quickly.

Your child should be allowed to return to sporting activities, physical exercise and rough play as soon as the pain and discomfort settles.

Follow up appointments

We should not need to see your child again.

All the x-rays will be reviewed by a specialist to check your child has been given the right treatment and make sure there are no other problems. They will contact you if they have any concerns, so please check that we have your correct details.

Things to look out for when your child goes home:

Your child may have discomfort in their wrist which should settle over a few days. They may require simple pain killers such as those that can be purchased over the counter at a chemist/pharmacy.

More information

For more details about the treatment of this injury see www.FORCEstudy.org

Contact details

If you have any concerns you can use the contact details below for advice.

Call: 111

Web: https://www.bradfordhospitals.nhs.uk/our-hosp