Despite 200 years of medical literature proving the complexity and non-solved problems in treating distal radius fractures, in no other fracture, intra-articular mal-union, and metaphyseal mal-alignment is so broadly accepted.

Materials and Methods:

30 elderly patients with unstable distal radius fractures with mean age of 57.1 years were managed conservatively and observed for an average period of 6 months, and functional and radiological outcomes were assessed.

Results:

Patient related wrist evaluation system showed all groups had minimal functional disability. Radiological assessment by Sarmiento et al. modifi cation of Lidstorm’s scoring showed that 33.3% patients in Group 1A had poor radiographic scores, 50% patients in Group 1B had good radiographic scores whereas, in Group 2, 53.3% patients had fair radiographic scores. Functional results were not found to be correlated with radiological outcomes.

Conclusion:

In elderly patients, patients having low functional demands or patients presenting to us late and not willing for any surgical treatment, mal-alignment, and articular incongruence can be accepted, as radiological outcomes in this study does not correlate with the functional outcomes.